As we drove we passed many places and ran over many things, one in which was a nursing home(we just passed it), thankfully all residents were inside eating and such. as we passed by, i thought back to when my mom and dad(precious ones) took care of my grandmother(who is 90) in their home in perry florida, where i am from. my mom cooked grandmother homemade meals, every meal, she took her to interesting places like the fabulous bakery in downtown perry, she had many, many visitors to see grandmother to help brighten her day and they watched movies together most regularly. mom also took care of grandmother like keeping her clean , her bedding clean and kept her taking her meds properly. mom prayed with her daily, read her the bible regularly and just loved her mama! dad also helped with all this too! they were literally reflections of Jesus to grandmother.
Now what has puzzled me so, and grabbed my thoughts just for a moment, while out reckless driving with my daughter , is this. The time(8plus months) that grandmother was with mom and dad, she constantly begged to go "home" to atlanta. dont get me wrong, i understand that a 90 year old who has lived her whole life in one place would want to go back there. she had nowhere to go back to though! we explained that to her countless times, we empathized with her daily, and continued to take care and love her. grandmother kept on begging to go back, calling family in atlanta, asking to go live with them( the family in that situation work full time), repeatedly, so, finally she got her wish. mom called her brother, explained that no matter what she did, grandmother wanted to move back to atlanta. Grandmother had never lived with her son before, but she just knew it would be home(i guess). she went back "home" this past april and immediately got sick, had to be hospitalized and then went straight to a nursing home. we all tried to tell grandmother that might happen because her son wasn't equipped to take care of her like my mom and dad. she has now been in the nursing home a few months. i have seen her and her sweet sweet smile since, but it's nothing like when she lived with her daughter, my mom.
i think God is like that with us too. He desperately tries to give the best for us, to us, He tries to mature and grow us,He tries to show us His unfailing love; yet, we always desire to go back to what's comfortable and even destructive,at times. what are you hanging onto? what is it that you won't let go of? do you REALLY want to go back? do you REALLY want to live in that nursing home when you can have shangri-la? my advice to me and maybe you too is; be content where you are. He might just be maturing you and getting you ready for something else. God bless you right where you BE today!!!! by the way, there's a part 2 to this. stay in touch tomorrow. it gets pretty muddy and miry....( phil.4:11-13) ...for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.
Being content is so hard for us. When we are safe in the arms of Jesus we feel so cozy and yet we do drift back out of that safety to what we think will bring us happiness and contentment. It doesn't take long to realize that we want to be back in His arms. Why does it take us so long to learn those lessons? Thank you June I am really enjoying your blogs.
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