Thursday, March 16, 2006
From AscensionNYC
Thursday in the Second Week of Lent
Psalm 74
Genesis 42:29-38
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Mark 4:21-34
About two and a half months ago an old friend, having abdominal pain, had a gall stone removed. All cat scans were clear. When the pain did not go away, another cat scan was performed. This time it showed something suspicious on the pancreas.
Two weeks ago a friend came down from New Hampshire to see him because of this news, and suddenly, as they talked, my friend collapsed from septic shock (septicemia from the gall stone operation) so his friend rushed him to the hospital and saved his life.
I guess I don't need to tell you that this suspicious spot has rapidly developed into full-blown ravaging pancreatic cancer... prognosis?...well, you know.
Now, why am I telling you all this? My friend has always been fiercely independent, sometimes to the point of truculence. He has even commented to me that he's a bit of a loner. He likes to think of himself as someone with whom lots of people don't necessarily agree. He is also very intelligent and a writer and poet (which in itself can be isolating.)
While he was in hospital, he had, so the guy at the front desk told me, more visitors than anyone else in the hospital. It became so difficult for them, that they just waved everyone to go on up! I'm talking in the dozens! Fifteen to twenty people a day! He told me that he had no idea so many people cared...he was truly, utterly astounded!
He's home as I write this. His friends have arranged that he is never alone 24 hours a day, since he has said that he wants to die at home.
Now, some might say that in the long run, his friend saving his life did not do him any favors -- it might have been better to let him die then. But since he had someone with him, it seems to me that God did not intend that he should die at that time.
I think that God wanted him to know how much he was loved. And being God, He has been abundant -- actually lavish is probably a better word -- in showing him that. There is no way that this man can any longer think that he is alone and uncared for! And the reason he is much loved is because, despite his truculence, over many years he has helped, guided, comforted, cared for, and encouraged all those people who have come to see him in droves.
Which is what Jesus says in Mark's Gospel: "the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you." And, like Jacob who had no idea that in giving up Benjamin he would keep him and find Joseph, his other son, so we cannot know the workings of God.
By the time you read this he will probably be gone. I've been blessed by his life, not only in the living of it, but also as he is leaving it. For it teaches me yet again that God does move in strange ways his wonders to perform.
"Yours is the day, Yours also the night."
Genesis 42:29-38
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Mark 4:21-34
About two and a half months ago an old friend, having abdominal pain, had a gall stone removed. All cat scans were clear. When the pain did not go away, another cat scan was performed. This time it showed something suspicious on the pancreas.
Two weeks ago a friend came down from New Hampshire to see him because of this news, and suddenly, as they talked, my friend collapsed from septic shock (septicemia from the gall stone operation) so his friend rushed him to the hospital and saved his life.
I guess I don't need to tell you that this suspicious spot has rapidly developed into full-blown ravaging pancreatic cancer... prognosis?...well, you know.
Now, why am I telling you all this? My friend has always been fiercely independent, sometimes to the point of truculence. He has even commented to me that he's a bit of a loner. He likes to think of himself as someone with whom lots of people don't necessarily agree. He is also very intelligent and a writer and poet (which in itself can be isolating.)
While he was in hospital, he had, so the guy at the front desk told me, more visitors than anyone else in the hospital. It became so difficult for them, that they just waved everyone to go on up! I'm talking in the dozens! Fifteen to twenty people a day! He told me that he had no idea so many people cared...he was truly, utterly astounded!
He's home as I write this. His friends have arranged that he is never alone 24 hours a day, since he has said that he wants to die at home.
Now, some might say that in the long run, his friend saving his life did not do him any favors -- it might have been better to let him die then. But since he had someone with him, it seems to me that God did not intend that he should die at that time.
I think that God wanted him to know how much he was loved. And being God, He has been abundant -- actually lavish is probably a better word -- in showing him that. There is no way that this man can any longer think that he is alone and uncared for! And the reason he is much loved is because, despite his truculence, over many years he has helped, guided, comforted, cared for, and encouraged all those people who have come to see him in droves.
Which is what Jesus says in Mark's Gospel: "the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you." And, like Jacob who had no idea that in giving up Benjamin he would keep him and find Joseph, his other son, so we cannot know the workings of God.
By the time you read this he will probably be gone. I've been blessed by his life, not only in the living of it, but also as he is leaving it. For it teaches me yet again that God does move in strange ways his wonders to perform.
"Yours is the day, Yours also the night."
Barbara Head
