Start Visiting More

This may seem sort of ridiculous to you, but I have a problem visiting in hospitals and nursing centers. I don’t know what it is; maybe the smells or maybe it was a bad experience at birth or something. Regardless, I’ve decided to get over it by placing it at the top of my resolution list, promising myself to keep it before me until I get over it. I’m looking at this little problem as a hindrance in my three year old career change. Somehow I’ve got to find the time to devote either to actual physical visiting or at least a few minutes on the telephone with folks who have found themselves out of touch due to illness or aging. I think I have something to offer and I may have to force myself to deliver right at first, but it’s also something I want to do so I’ve got to get started.
A compassionate nurse in a health clinic somewhere in our great country wrote the following story: “It was a busy early morning, and only 8:30 when an elderly gentleman, I guessed in his 80’s, arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00. I took his vital signs and asked him to have a seat, knowing it would probably be over an hour before a doctor would get to see him. I noticed him getting restless as he kept looking at his watch and decided since I wasn’t busy with another patient I would evaluate his wound then see if perhaps I could help him. On exam I found it to be well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, then got the needed supplies to remove the sutures and redress the wound. While tending to the thumb we began to engage in conversation. I inquired as to his other appointment that it must be important for him to be there on time. He told me he needed to be at the nursing home to have breakfast with his wife. I inquired about her health and he told me she was a victim of Alzheimer Disease and had been there for many years already. As we talked, and I finished dressing his thumb, he told me he starts every day having breakfast with his wife. I asked if she would get worried if he was a few minutes late. He replied she no longer knew who he was, that she hadn’t recognized him for over five years now. I was surprised and asked him, ‘And you still go every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are?’ He smiled as he took my hand in his and patted it, ‘She doesn’t know me, but I still know who she is.’ I had to hold back the tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arms and thought, ‘That’s the kind of love I want in my life.”
[Romans 5: 6-8] True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be. (v8) “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” How much does God love us? He came to visit man even though mankind was dying in sin. God put on flesh, we know him as Jesus. He was born like everyone else. He spilled his milk; he fell down a lot while learning to walk. He sneezed and coughed with a common cold, and had to blow his nose now and again. He went to school and stood beside his earthly father learning a trade. He knew the feeling of pain from a hammer on the thumb and the loss of a friend due to death. He knows what it’s like to be rejected, falsely accused and beaten into submission. He was spat upon and cursed. How much does God love us? He took upon himself the sins of the world and died on a cross at the hands of men, so that we might live. Would it hurt you to visit often the one who was willing to die for you?