on spiderlillies and motorcycles

Upon waking, disembarking and charging up my own trusty wagon... I head a little further west to meet some friends at a nearby nursing home... we gather on Tuesday nights to sing hymns in the little chapel there... and to love and be loved...

When I enter the door, I see people headed down the hall toward the chapel... some walking... some tottering... some wheeling their way... some under their own steam... and some with assistance... faces intent on the journey... faces filled with anticipation... some in hospital gowns or pajamas... some dressed in their Sunday best... and one sweet little lady who always, always wears a Sunday-go-to-meeting hat... as I take the nearest wheelchair in hand and head down the hallway, I can hear the strains of music coming to me... voices raised in worship... guitars and piano filling the air with accompanying music... and then I round the corner to find them all their... happy faces... sad faces... lonely faces... empty faces... excited faces... all kinds of faces... and over the next hour, the music and God’s Presence lifts them all... lifts us all...

Of the group that sings, Sister and I just can’t stand still... we have to move... and dance... winding our way around the room... touching... holding... hugging... saying “I love you”... to every single body there.... once... twice... three times... as often as we can throughout the hour we are there... “this little light of mine... I’m gonna let it shine... let it shine, shine, shine, shine... I’m gonna let it shine....” “somebody touched me...”

We sing... we laugh... we love... and we close with prayer and the Pledge of Allegience to the flag of the United States of America...

And then I go home to more blessings... my wonderful husband... the safety of our home... a roof over my head... a warm bed to sleep in... food to eat... water do drink...

But... this past Tuesday there was an extra blessing... a special blessing...

One of the precious ladies who meets us there to sing shared her story... a story of fearsome tidings... of cancerous “stones” in the glands in her neck and her pending surgery last year... of the pity and regret her surgeon felt over what he had to do and her slim chances of surviving... and of how God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of love and strength and a sound mind... and how she didn’t let the doctor’s knowledge of medical science hinder her belief in a God who is bigger than anything man can say or do...

She says she’s a “holy roller” and that the night before her surgery she knelt at the front of her small church with the congregation all around her, those close enough to lay hands on her did so, and those who couldn’t get close enough laid their hands on the ones they could reach... a continuous web of love... and they prayed for healing while she knelt there with her hands on her neck... and she felt the knots on one side of her neck just melt away and disappear...

When she went to the hospital the next day for her surgery, the surgeon was stunned... it had only been two days since she’d seem him for her for pre-op... and he asked her what had happened...

She told him God took them away... and he asked "What did you say?"...

She told him again that God took them away... and he called someone else into the room and made her repeat it... shaking his head the whole time... and he asked her why God took them from one side and not the other side if it was God who did it, and she told him "Because of you... He wanted you to hear about it." She told him she wasn't afraid to go into surgery for the ones on the other side, that God had a plan and she was anxious to see what it was going to be. When she woke up in recovery, her surgeon was in a chair sitting beside her bed, holding her hand. He accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

It's easier to have Faith and Hope when you aren't being blinded by knowledge...

What a perfect application of the phrase! Good job, I enjoyed the read.

Neat! Is that the one close to where I live? Can just anyone join in? Call me.