What is lasting..

In November of last year I awoke in the small, quiet hours of the morning. While that is not unusual, what happened next was: I had an overwhelming sense that I should enumerate the things in life for which I was grateful.



My list was made up mostly of simple creature comforts and of relationships. I thanked God for the comfortable bed in which I rested, for the security of the home in which we live, for the simple pleasure of a cold drink of water, for the ease with which each breath came, for the ability to move about--both ambulating and in the modern vehicles that we all use, for those whom I love and who love me; and at the end of my list, but the most important of all, infinitely so, for eternal life through the salvation provided by Jesus.



I wondered why I felt compelled to list these things that night. I am not prone to deep thinking in the middle of the night, and I confess, am often not grateful for the things that I too often take for granted but would miss dearly should they no longer be available. I arose the next morning with a sense of contentment mixed with puzzlement.



I did not think much about that night for several weeks. Then, early on a Saturday morning in December, I received a call from Jim, my sister's husband. Carmen had suffered a stroke in the middle of the night and was in the emergency room in a town 3 hours away. We drove there, and upon arriving found that she was still in the emergency room because of a lack of bed space in the hospital.



She was on her back on a simple stretcher and had been so for 11 hours. She could not have any fluids by mouth because she was unable to swallow effectively. She could have nothing for pain and had an excrutiating headache. Her entire left side was paralyzed, making ambulation impossible. As the afternoon progressed she became increasingly air hungry and finally had to be assisted with a ventilator. Over the next 36 hours she completely lost her ability to communicate with those she loved, and then she lost her life.



As I stood in that ER that Saturday afternoon, I thought about the things for which I had expressed gratitude weeks before. I realized that Carmen had the most uncomfortable of beds, that she was not able to be home where she felt most secure, that she could not experience the pleasure of a simple drink of water or a walk outdoors. Even breathing had become a labor. She could not even express her emotions and eventually she lost the ability to know that loved ones surrounded her.


Only one thing could not be taken from her--her relationship with Jesus Christ. And as she passed from this life to eternity, that most important of things for which I had expressed gratitude weeks before became the glorious reality for her. That reality awaits all who trust Jesus, and, in the mean time, I pray that God will give me the grace to be more grateful for the temporal and the eternal pleasures which He bestows upon us.