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Life Isn’t All Peaches and Cream
07.20.2005 by Tim Reed
I saw Christ today. He was on the 3rd floor of the local hospital. He had cancer and answered to the name Sandra.
The first time I met Sandra she was at her home being cared for by a nurse. She’s had cancer for awhile now, not sure how long, but long enough that they moved a hospital bed into her bedroom and everyone was aware of her situation. She was extremely cheerful and upbeat. The only sign of cancer being the bed and the tube going into her arm.
Today she was nothing like that. When I first walked in she was brushing her teeth in a chair while her sister took care of her. She didn’t respond to my greeting. After she was brushing her teeth I went over and knelt in front of her so my face was even with hers. She was in a lot of pain. So much that when she talked her language was sometimes garbled. It hurts her much more to sit up than to lay down. She kept telling me that. I told her to hang on the bed is almost made and ready to go. After she laid down and the morphine kicked in she was much more coherent.
She’s dying. She knows she’s dying. She’s telling me what she wants at her funeral. And do you know what her two biggest topics to cover is? First she’s frantic about the doctor that’s caring for her. He’s angry at God because of what he’s seen as he cares for dying people. He blames God for doing this to people. Second, she’s concerned about making sure that everyone glorifies, honors, obeys and praises Jesus. I’m not sure if that’s her exact words, but its pretty close.
How do you like that? Dying a painful death and her two thoughts are for the eternal destination of those around her, and praising God.
I told you I saw Christ today.
July 21st, 2005 at 5:01 am
I, too, saw Christ the other day.
I was at work in the usually vacant waiting room. It wasn’t before long until a hunched-over, semi-crippled blind man was escorted in and eventually sat down to then be left by himself. Alone and in the corner, all he had was a drink and cane, both of which he occasionally fidgeted around for out of need. He looked particularly disturbed, but most attentive to the softest of noises which surrounded him; though, unaware of my presence.
He would hear I suppose clues of my presence; look up, tense his face as though in great pain, and begin audibly surveying the atmosphere and soon look away, leaving me wonder whether or not thought himself to be alone. He must have sat there making those dreadful expressions for about an hour by himself without knowing of my being there. Unaware that if he were to call out in need, I’d be right there to assist him in any way I could. Unaware that I was available to guide him wherever he wished—a hand to help him on his way. Unaware that I unconditionally had compassion for his soul and was thus given to the thoughts of God.
Besides the fact that it made me think so deeply into the things of God that I cried, it reminded me of the relationship Christ has to us in all of our lives at some point. So often we stumble along in similarly blind situations. So often we might need to call out for help beyond us. So often receiving hints of omnipresence. But, so often concluding it to be nothing but the wind.
July 26th, 2005 at 7:58 pm
i’ve had the same sor tof experience with people coming through kroger… too many to count. its sad to see the poor drunks who go in every day to buy a bottle of beer. and the single moms who are too young to know how to handle their children.