Before reading this message, I urge you to first read the information on the first link listed below and then watch the video on the second. The website is listed last; when you have a minute, read through that as well.
http://www.pinebeltpacers.org/News/StrongDad.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg
http://www.teamhoyt.com/
I used to live next door to a couple and the husband was a paraplegic. His wife worked at Sheppard Spinal Center downtown Atlanta and that is where they met. I attended several of their events and taught various workshops including art and taxidermy to the Sheppard patients; it was often very depressing to me. I was amazed at how easily my neighbor worked with these wheelchair-bound people. Many of them got this way because they were super active risk takers and outdoors people; many were riding motorcycles, or fell out of deer stands, or were diving into a swimming pool or lake, or were doing some other outdoor activity and had a disastrous accident. Many were quadriplegics and it was hard for me to look at these mostly young and once strong men in such a state realizing that I was just like them in spirit and if it were not for the grace of God I would be right there in a chair with them. Not so with my neighbor, she treated them as if nothing had ever happened and they were just like everybody else to her. She truly had a gift and I could see in their eyes just how much they appreciated it.
I was always interested in Mother Teresa and could never understand how she could work with some of the people with whom she worked. I have been to India and seen first hand lepers and the poorest of the poor. It was hard enough for me to even look upon them, much less to care for them as she did day after day walking though the filthy streets of the slums of Calcutta, year after year taking care of mankind’s rejects. I have seen video footage of her holding them in her arms and caressing them with a huge smile on her saintly face as they gazed back at her. A reporter who was experiencing similar feelings to mine, (in wondering how she did it), asked her one time how she could do it; she told the reporter that when she looked into their faces she saw the face of Jesus.
One of my closest and best friends several years ago got a melanoma. It was aggressive and the cancer quickly spread rapidly to all parts of his body including his kidneys and brain. Bobby could not control his bowels and he drooled almost constantly; however his eyes were bright and he was extremely lucid right up until the end. I had worked day in and day out with him, one on one, for years and years and I was dreading going to visit him and seeing him like that. I did go however and when I got there I was overcome with compassion for him. I grabbed a washcloth and wiped his brow and put my hand on his head. He looked at me appreciatively and said, “This is really tough”. “I know Bobby, I know”, I replied. I went to see Bobby often over the next few weeks, right up until the Lord took him home. Not once did his drool or slurring words, or his jaundiced yellowing condition caused by a failing liver ever effect me; in fact I never even thought about it. I just looked in his ‘bright’ eyes and felt brotherly love and tremendous compassion. I did not see the face of Jesus but I feel sure he did the moment he shut his eyes for the last time.
My youngest son and I shared a flight the other day and sat across the aisle from one another. The man sitting next to him had a huge and terrible looking birthmark covering the entire right side of his face. My son and this guy talked the entire flight without missing a beat. Most folks would have buried their face in a magazine or turned away to look out the window, or in his case he could have just talked to me. I was proud of him that day.
The next time you see someone who is suffering and trapped in a fragile or wrecked body look for the face of Jesus as you gaze upon them; think about them as being similar to a beautiful bird trapped in a cage just waiting to be released into the heavens. One day their spirit will leave its broken clay and if they belong to Jesus, will be given a new and perfect “glorified” body that will never fail them for all of eternity. A human spirit that is in the image of God Himself is trapped inside each of our bodies and one day will be released and return to its creator God almighty.
I do not know why bad stuff happens to good people, perhaps so the rest of us can learn a lesson in humility and give us some perspective on life and what is important. Those problems that you will no doubt encounter today are pretty minor, now wouldn’t you agree?
1 Peter 3:8
Finally all of you be of one mind,
having compassion for one another;
love as brothers, be tenderhearted
be courteous…
Look for the face of Jesus
Aug
14
2006
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Aug
14
2006
Posted in, Strength