Well into her 90’s about all grandma can do is sit in a recliner all day long watching TV occasionally shuffling to the kitchen for a meal. The family has provided for daily in-home care around the clock. Yet there are occasions when the helpers call in sick or have a car break down. Such was the case today and it couldn’t come at a worse time.
Dinner-time was late. The kids were crabby, one with a slight fever. Everyone had to pitch in to get the food on the table. As soon as you opened the front door you could smell it. Grandma had had an accident in her recliner and needed a full change of clothes and a wash.
Son has been in this scenario way too many times. The rest of the family lives quite a distance away and son has taken it upon himself to oversee his aging mother’s care.
Somewhere in the scheme of things children aren’t supposed to change their parent’s diapers or see them naked (Genesis, Leviticus) let alone wash them clean after a toilet accident. Even when you don’t feel it, even when the tension is so great you can taste it in your mouth, compassion wins out in loving families. And every now and then loving sons and daughters are some how able to marshal the patience to give their parents the dignity they deserve.
God’s love is best described by the Greek word ‘agape’ which can be defined as “love whose aim is the welfare of another” even at the cost to one’s self. When we humans love in such a manner God is with us and we are with God.
After she was all cleaned up and joined the family at the head of the table for the make-shift dinner, the three year old with a fever came over to offer his great-grandmother a Kleenex for a runny nose and tenderly asked, “Are you sick Grandma? Are you OK?” as he patted her on the hand. She responded, “Thank you for the tissue, Honey, I am fine…”
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