In the Hands

Recently, I was listening to a beloved elder tell me about some of the travels she and her husband had taken in an r.v.  I learned that they had visited just about every state, including Alaska, and most of those trips were taken after they both had retired from long careers.   When I commented on the beauty of those memories, she responded, "Yes, the retirement years were wonderful."  The statement reminded me that she and her husband were indeed in their post-retirement years - that time of life when health concerns really start to dictate how life is to be wrapped up.  She lives with quite a bit of pain from arthritis; her husband has Alzheimer's.   They both are still able to live at home, but only with 24 hour care.   I am grateful that their caregivers are determined to see that these elders get to church at least a couple of times a month. Their presence in the small congregation is much celebrated. 

Last Sunday I served Bob communion, the first time in several months.  I was touched to see him reverently pull a piece of bread from the loaf, and dip it into the cup. He needed no encouragement or coaxing.  He placed the bread in his mouth, nodded his head and smiled.  However, as moving as all that was, what really touched me was watching his hands.  It dawned on me that those hands had been around a long time.  They had drafted plans, held children, embraced his wife, mowed the lawn, payed the bills, petted the cats, put up the Christmas trees, driven the r.v.  and a myriad of other tasks, long forgotten.   Olga, a wise elder mentioned in a previous post recently told me, "Plastic surgery can change a person's face, but the hands cannot be altered.  They will always tell the truth."  

 

 Our hands, our hearts, our minds may not be able to do what they used to, but regardless, when we are with those who know and love us, we will always be more than our weaknesses.  Even when we can't fully remember that, someone else can. Together, we become more.  We live into love.  That is what communion is about.  And why the repetition is so important. Otherwise, we all forget.      

 

May our hands be used for good today, so the stories they tell will be of love.  May we taste love today, and know we are fed.  Let us help one another remember.      

  

   

But God has so constructed the body as to give honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the other parts may have the same concern for one another.  If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. 

1 Corinthians 12:24-26