2 Corinthians 4:18 “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
I went to the nursing home to visit my dad this afternoon. He was sound asleep in his recliner when I arrived, as he usually is that time of day. He heard me talking to one of the nurses and perked up and we began to talk. I told him about my day and what I had been doing since our last visit. And then I asked him how he was feeling and how his week had gone. His response is usually the same…”I feel fine!” For a man who cannot walk anymore, he is always in pretty good spirits. But today he followed his usual response with…”if I could just walk.”
He used to say that to me often but he hasn’t for a while. I feel bad for him. He has been in this situation since about 2003 and it actually began a few years prior. He has a neurological disease called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) and he has a shunt in his head that drains excess cerebral spinal fluid into his abdomen. He began to get sick shortly after he retired and his health has slowly deteriorated…losing the ability to do most everything on his own. He still has his memory though and he knows what is going on. He is a fighter and a survivor. But I know he is tired of living that way.
When he said to me “if I could just walk”…trying to cheer him up, I told him I would buy him a pair of roller skates so he could ride around the nursing home…which made him chuckle. But his response was that he would “probably fall down.”
At that point, I was beginning to feel defeated. But then I blurted out “Dad, you know you will walk again when you are in heaven.” His eyes widened and he looked at me and said, “Yeah, I guess you are right!”
When I was a child, for the longest time I thought the cemetery where my grandmother was buried was heaven. I lost a balloon once and as it blew up into the sky, my mom reassured me that it was okay…that my grandmother would grab it in heaven. The next time we went to the cemetery to place flowers on her grave I asked my mom, “where is my balloon? You told me grandmother would have it.” I am not exactly sure how my mom explained it to me at the time because I was very young and probably still didn’t understand. But I understand now.
Our time here on this planet is only temporary. The difficulties we face here are only temporary. Our place in heaven is eternal. And there we will all be walking and running or maybe even roller-skating.
God, today I pray for those who do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I pray that You give them a renewed hope and remind them that this life is just the beginning. The struggles that we face now are only temporary. The things we cannot see are eternal. We love You and we thank You for loving us the way You do. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Blessings,
Stacey ~ iamalive