It's Time To Visit

There is always something beautiful about going and visiting seniors.  Not just in the lodge where I have been the volunteer Chaplin for eighteen years. I love to go and see them, talk and sometimes just listen to their stories. They have so much to say, so much wisdom and life experience. But not enough ears to listen to them. Of course this goes with my thoughts on the elderly. I feel that we have them with us until we finally hear what they have to say.
What a great day the other Tuesday when I did my usual rounds with them. I had not been able to be there the previous Tuesday and as I drove over I wondered if they had been okay for two weeks. I found out very quickly they had. The first resident just inside the door called out, “Must be Tuesday”.
The rest of the morning went somewhat the same. Some missed me and wanted to know if I was all right. What’s with that, I’m supposed to ask them. One lady even told me she waited and when I didn’t show up, she was a little disappointed. You know, this is something we all can do. Usually doesn’t take too much time out of our day to show up once a week and brighten their day. Go in, say hi, let them talk for a while, you sometimes don’t even have to say anything.
The knitting group is always interesting. They laugh, talk, eat cookies and drink tea as they knit squares that become blankets for those who don’t have one. I guess that is the beauty of these amazing people. They love to visit and many times are sitting waiting for someone to come and see them. You would be surprised at how many seniors sit alone day in and day out with only the tv for company.
We are missing out on something amazing and energizing. My dad told me more than once, “Learn from my mistakes because you won’t live long enough to make them all yourself”. Which meant I needed to sit with him and listen. I have been visiting seniors for over fifty-five years and have never regretted giving up my time to listen to amazing stories. So I think of that first senior I visited way back inmy youth. It was Henry, a very tall proud man who was born into slavery. His wheel chair was old as well and he sat taller than me in the chair.
You know, there is a huge similarity between our seniors and God. They both sit many times, alone, waiting for our weekly visit. God waits patiently for us to come in to visit with Him and hear His-story (history). Don’t miss out, you will never regret either visit.
Something to think about
Rob

Everything?

“A place for everything and everything in its place”. At least that is what the line tells us. Hate that line because I can’t make it happen. I know a few people that live it and very well. If there is any envy in my life it is for them. I try, but for some reason a place for everything usually turns out to be the top of my desk. There have been times when everything turned into never finding the top of my desk. If they do get away somewhere, I can never find them again.

At home, we were able to take care of it for a while until there were too many things looking for too few empty places. I also noticed some of our things were too big and not enough big spaces to put them in. It’s fascinating looking through a wonderful new book on how to create big spaces in small homes. Well, we did one they mention. We put a staircase to the attic. Wrong move. Now there is too much up there. When I go up there myself, I turn back the pages of time to wonderful memories of my grandparent’s attic searching for treasures and finding at one time, a bag of wooden marbles.

Life gives us other moments, at least those who can’t seem to make this line a reality. Have you ever had company coming and one or two cupboards or closets became the catch all of things that were just sitting around gathering dust? And isn’t it interesting, most of that stuff stays there? Just saying. Hey, they found a place! It’s one of life’s unfathomable mysteries.

But there is one hiding place God put in our lives where we can store more treasures then we ever imagined and that is memorization. There are a good number of verses that I learned a long time ago, verses like, Psalm 119:11 “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you”. There definitely is room in our hearts for the words of the bible. Words that will at some time in our life bring peace and assurance that God is in charge and He cares for us. Other words like Psalms 51:10, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me”. What verse do you have stored away?

Something to think about.

Rob

Take A Break

Almost got run over the other day.  Four times! I was in the grocery store picking up a few things, minding my own business when bam! This person came out of nowhere and I assume they were running late as they almost run me over. Not too minutes later, in the produce isle, someone did it again. What’s with these people in a hurry? Mind you, I do try to stay out of people’s way in the store as I take my time. I even take my time in the chocolate isle admiring the wonderful packaging and keep on going.

Groceries in the boot and slowly start to back out and, bam, someone comes flying down the row and almost taking out my groceries in the trunk. After they keep going I get out on the street and proceed home. I don’t have to tell you about the fourth one as we all experience aggressive drivers every day. Weaving in and out of traffic maybe thinking their agenda is more important than ours.

It got me to thinking. With this world in so much of a hurry, we need to learn how to take a break. That is what our children are doing right now. It might even be something we can work into our weekly schedule, just like the husbands at the mall. The wife and children go off shopping and we men find a nice chair and just sit and watch people go by.

If Jesus is your role model, can you remember what He did when He was tired of all He was doing? He “went off to a solitary place and talked to His Father”. What a great thing to do. Once, before our too busy lives got in the way, we used to go into church early on Sunday morning and just sat and prayed to the same Father Jesus prayed to. It always felt good and can feel right again.

Something to think about.  

Rob

Reunion

When we were young, and I’m assuming you aren’t anymore, we always got excited about going somewhere during the summer months. I’m old enough to remember we didn’t go to places kids go to now. There was no Wonderland or Disney World. There was no Darian Lake or Great Wolf Lodge. I do have to admit we had Storybook Gardens in London, ON. But we never went there. When I was young, we went to the next best thing, our cousin’s homes. To us they held the best fun of all.

We used to chase wild pheasants in the Stoney Creek out behind Uncle Oscar’s home in Stoney Creek, ON. Also, while there, we entertained ourselves searching through the closed in porch for all kinds of neat cast off items of a large family. Some of us even had opportunity to run up the front stairs at Uncle Alan’s home and down the back stairs until Aunt Norma had enough and sent us out to the back yard where we picked and ate wild raspberries, blackberries, elderberries and gooseberries. We made our fun. As I mentioned in church on Sunday, we had very vivid imaginations.

The best one for me back then, was when we went to my dad’s sister’s house in the country outside of Woodstock, ON.  On that long hour drive, we didn’t have three or four screens to look at all the time. Our faces were glued to the window watching the world go by at a death defying forty five miles per hour. Explain that to you grandkids. I scratch my head sometimes when I see a van full of children in the back seats staring at a screen and never once looking out the window to see the beauty of our world flying by at one hundred twenty kilometers an hour. Back to the farm. It had so much to search out from the hay loft and the mice and trying to catch the feral cats, to watching the cows come to the barn on their own for milking.

The places we went then were filled with people. People we loved and they loved us back. Church has also been like that. Today our society might be missing both to some degree. If we are fortunate enough, we still go to church picnics and our families reunions. One day, when we get to heaven, there will be no more screens to look at. There will be just two things to attract our attention. There will be one big church picnic; it will be like summer vacation forever. There we will not only meet Jesus face to face but as we see all the beauty of heaven prepared for us by a loving God and there we will experience one amazing family reunion.

"I'm so glad, I'm a part

Of the family of God..."

Something to think about

Rob