Six month review…
Remember there is a future after the sand runs out, and that future is already bleeding into your present. Dum spiro spero: while I breathe, I hope.
“How to Inhabit Time” by James K.A. Smith.
Carol’s journey took an unexpected turn 6 months ago today. The onset of a major stroke began on a pre-dawn Monday morning, November 07. For days, I didn’t think she would see the outside of a hospital again.
For me, it was a crash course in how to navigate the labyrinth you call health care—and elder care—in the United States. Harrowing, disjointed, compartmentalized, bureaucratic… the opposite of holistic and personal. I felt like I had fallen down a rabbit hole with Alice.
Having had time to regroup and collect our thoughts, we have had good conversations about what our life together looks like now.
We embrace the new season… with the same panache we demonstrated in the previous ones. Today is as preordained as birth, youth, adulting, maturing and aging. It is what it is. How we react to it will not change it; but how we react to it will affect our witness for the One who is preparing us for so much more than pain-free, temporal wellness.
We embrace the inevitable… “the sand runs out.” Death is creeping in, our bodies advertise its nearness. The God who made us to inhabit this temporal life in equally temporal bodies is also the One who numbered our days. We’ll be outta here soon… and forgotten shortly thereafter.
We embrace the victory… death comes to us all. But, we’re not approaching the hour of our demise… the once-for-all sacrifice and bodily resurrection of the Son changed all of that. He conquered death. Death is swallowed up in victory.
We’re very close now to our moment: our grand entrance into his glorious kingdom. I don’t know if there will be a red carpet, but it will be our time to shine. Not our moment in the sun, not our 15 minutes of fame… but to shine like never before, to shine like the stars, to shine longer than eons of shining stars… to shine forever.
“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”” (1 Corinthians 15:54, ESV)
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57, ESV)
“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Matthew 13:43 ESV
Thanks for the update! Thought Carol would enjoy this picture of our transplant group at the Mothers Day tea last year. We are really missing her! Oops. Doesn’t look as if I can post the picture. Sorry.
Thanks for the update! I love both of you. Last week (or so) I finished April and Carol's book. So much good perspective there. Greg, now I am more than halfway through your latest. We will have lots to talk about, my friend.