Seeing through a glass darkly

This is one of those weekends. Already towards the end of the week my brother-in-law in Taiwan had contacted my wife to say that the family there thought she should come back because her father was dying. She had just returned from there December 22 after being there for 12 weeks.

Then, one of our best friends locally ended up in a hospital in downtown Vancouver earlier in the week with a serious illness that they are still investigating. Her husband and I visited her this afternoon.

Finally, after dinner this evening I received an email from my brother-in law saying that our father had peacefully passed away about the time that my wife, his daughter, was waiting in the departure lounge for her trip back to Taiwan. Now, I know that going a day or 2 earlier would not have made any difference in terms of communication between the 2, in all probability, due to his state of health. However, it is always nice to be there with your loved one.

As we drove back over the bridge from Vancouver in the fog, which limits one's visibility, I was thinking about these things in conjunction with the message we heard in our worship service this morning based on Luke 13:20-21. It reminded me of Paul's statement in that famous 13th chapter of first Corinthians:

"For now we see in the mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face."

Indeed, no matter what we learn, no matter what we experience, in this life on earth, it is only a shadow of what is yet to be.

As I told our friend in hospital, our Minister to Seniors had talked in church this morning about her visit with our friend the day before, saying that even in hospital she was a positive person.  I told our friend that I could only believe that it was God's spirit in her helping her be like this in spite of her circumstances.  Even saying she was thankful for hospital food because so many people in the world have poorer food or none.  

From her talking of her hospital experience and the staff's responses to her, I could tell that even the staff, at all levels, are encouraged and blessed by her positive presence there. That is a good thing, I said. So, there is a good reason for her being there, besides her condition getting properly so she gets diagnosed properly and then receives the treatment she needs. I am sure the staff from the doctors and the nurses on down to the housekeepers and kitchen staff need some affirmation.  Too often they hear complaints because, of course, most people who are ill and in the hospital are not very happy.  We even heard some of that on the elevator from a former employee who was in a wheelchair on her way down with us after our visit was over.  So, I said, you are a blessing to the people around you, just as they are trying to help you.

How this connected with the message this morning is like this. A visiting Pastor (we are in the middle of a pulpit exchange process) spoke about where Jesus tells the parable of the kingdom of God being like a woman who puts leaven or yeast in dough and the whole mixture was eventually leavened. According to her interpretation, sometimes we are busy and working hard putting in the leaven or yeast. Sometimes those are difficult times when God is testing us. I know my friend has been through that with family struggles and now with her own illness.

Then there are the times when we just have to sit and wait for the yeast to make the bread rise. That is like the times we have to be patient and wait for God to do what he wants to do with us. I told my friend that perhaps God knew she needed time away in hospital from all of the stress to let others do things for her and with her and let the yeast do its work. Sometimes interruptions like that in our lives, as much as we may not understand and appreciate them at the time, are a way God uses to get our attention and show us something.

Of course, the yeast is a metaphor for the Spirit working in our lives, in the life of the church. The Parable tells us the Spirit continues to work and the kingdom continues to grow in spite of ourselves. It reminds us that this is God's work and it is not as dependent on us as we sometimes think.

After I left, I wrote back to my friend, addressing it to a hospital address from which the hospital apparently prints and distributes the emails to the patients as a modern-day greeting card:

“We will continue to pray for you and the doctors and nurses working with you, just as the 3 of us did together before we left. We know you are in God's hands and it seems that you are in good human hands there too. God has prepared them for you so let us give thanks for them and for a place like this that can help us in our time of need.”