A Life of Service

Monday 3/10/2014 4:26 AM

Last Wednesday my mother fell and broke her hip.  She had hip replacement surgery on Thursday and is now recuperating and undergoing physical therapy.  She spent her entire life serving other people.  My dad had emphysema and she lovingly cared for him throughout his life, especially as his health deteriorated and he was no longer able to care for himself.  My younger sister, Ruth, has cerebral palsy and my mother cared for her needs as she was growing up, including numerous surgeries on her legs and eyes.  Her life was always lived unselfishly, in deference to others, and she is having a difficult time dealing with being on the receiving end of care rather than on the giving end.

My brother, Rod, has walked into her room and heard her praying aloud, asking God why this had to happen.  The nurses in the hospital have told him that they hear her talking to Jesus as if he were in the room.  They also said that she is a model patient, doing everything they ask her to do without complaining.  She has taken a personal interest in her caretakers asking them about their families and their lives away from their work.  It seems to me like my mother is a living example of the opening prayer of my devotional material this week.  “Almighty God, by the power of your Holy Spirit open our eyes, ears, hearts, and very lives to your presence so that today we may worship and serve you in faithfulness, be blessing and healing reminders of your love to all whose lives we touch.”  She is definitely aware of God’s presence in her life and she is blessing the lives of those she touches in spite of the painful circumstances she is experiencing.

Yesterday she told Rod that she prays that God will allow her to die soon so that she can see my dad, my stepfather, Herm, her brothers and sisters and her mom.  It seems as if she sees her work on this earth as being completed and she is longing to be relieved of her duties here.

I thought about my mom as I read my assigned psalm this morning.  Psalm 25:16-17 could be my mother’s prayer, “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.  Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish.”  I have mixed feelings about this but, this morning, I am praying this prayer on behalf of my mom.