by Jill Ryder on Saturday, October 22, 2011
(c) 2011 WordWitness Publishing
I’ve been thinking a lot about love lately!!
Hebrews 6:10 (KJV)
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
During this season, I have the privilege of spending my mornings with Joanie, a lovely little lady who has Alzheimer’s. She doesn’t have a clue the Lord Jesus is using her to teach me. She doesn’t even know who I am, or who she is, but she knows Jesus! That is one memory that hasn’t escaped her mind or His.
Each day, through me, her Lord will come and wash her clean. You see, He made her a promise long ago that He would NEVER leave or forsake her. The closest of family & friends have turned their faces from her, either unwilling or inept to face the indignities of the woman they used to know, but Her Lord Jesus meets her right where she is.
As I walk down the hall leading to her bedroom, I hear the echoing of a perfect soprano voice singing, “Jesus loves me”. This most delicate lady, who ministered on the platform at church and taught Sunday school, now sings from the confines of a hospital bed to an audience of one, accompanied by angels no one sees. Walking through a door of unsanitary conditions & the putrid smells that now barricade the audience she used to have; in harmony, we will finish the song together and the applause is heard from heaven! As I wash her face, comb her hair & remind her how to brush her teeth; I am honored every day to be part of a promise He made to her!
My mornings with Joanie have given me an entirely new perspective on the mind and on serving. It is by the hand of God that we hold any memory of where we’ve been and who we are. It is also by His sovereign hand that the mind is closed. It is a mystery that no man will ever solve.
I marvel at that fact that even though Joanie is living and breathing, she is no longer a part of this world. Just as the Apostle Paul teaches us, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen. Joanie got it! All that ever mattered in this life was written into her heart & when her mind slowly faded away; all that remained were the things eternal. Why even the very activities of daily living are a mystery to her. It is the love of Christ and what she now sees in the spiritual realm that has become her reality. Nothing in this life matters.
In a room full of angels sent to minister to her. She serenade’s in soprano to Jesus. Aaah soon… her reality will be made whole when at last, she is in the arms of her redeemer.
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