Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Prayers and Reflections
This morning finds my wife and I back in California, albeit in my case for a very short period, until I return to my parents bedside. Your prayers have been felt and answered. My parents are healing, though in my father's case, quite slowly. While we remain hopeful, even confident, of complete recovery, we find ourselves now making very difficult decisions about longer-term care and management of their affairs. Your prayers remains cherished and needed.
Mrs. Blogotional has been my best personal blessing these days, a great support in a time of grave concern. She has prepared this personal reflection on our journeys.
The Trees of Mississippi
Those of you who stop by Blogotional regularly know that we have been in Mississippi. This trip was sudden and full of pain. We got the phone call everyone dreads, your loved ones are critically injured, come immediately. So we came. We came and stood by their beds and listened to the doctors’ reports. And we waited.
We were at a hospital in the Northeast corner of Mississippi. Right next door to the hospital is a small park with a walking track and beautiful trees. Trees very tall that took me back to my childhood. I grew up in the Northwest, the land of tall trees. Those trees reached skyward.
Also a reminder of my childhood was the speech patterns I heard all around me. The cadence of southern speech was a reminder of my father’s family. My father’s family from the South spoke with that lyrical rhythm, totally lacking in our northern clime. I didn’t get to see them much, but when I did I always had a sense of “home”.
So as we took breaks from standing by the bedsides of our loved ones I looked at the trees, standing splendidly and I let the sounds of the kind voices around me, wash over me. These were comforts, solace at a time fraught with uncertainty. We were far from home, the circumstances difficult and anxious. We walked among the Mississippi trees, giants, straight and beautiful. In our darkest moments we had to look up and the Mississippi trees drew our eyes skyward.
God comes to us in many ways, at different times. We are hard pressed at times to sense his presence or direction. Fortunately sometimes he leaves us very large signposts, like trees.
Related Tags: God's comfort, Mississippi, parents, grace, prayer
Mrs. Blogotional has been my best personal blessing these days, a great support in a time of grave concern. She has prepared this personal reflection on our journeys.
The Trees of Mississippi
Those of you who stop by Blogotional regularly know that we have been in Mississippi. This trip was sudden and full of pain. We got the phone call everyone dreads, your loved ones are critically injured, come immediately. So we came. We came and stood by their beds and listened to the doctors’ reports. And we waited.
We were at a hospital in the Northeast corner of Mississippi. Right next door to the hospital is a small park with a walking track and beautiful trees. Trees very tall that took me back to my childhood. I grew up in the Northwest, the land of tall trees. Those trees reached skyward.
Also a reminder of my childhood was the speech patterns I heard all around me. The cadence of southern speech was a reminder of my father’s family. My father’s family from the South spoke with that lyrical rhythm, totally lacking in our northern clime. I didn’t get to see them much, but when I did I always had a sense of “home”.
So as we took breaks from standing by the bedsides of our loved ones I looked at the trees, standing splendidly and I let the sounds of the kind voices around me, wash over me. These were comforts, solace at a time fraught with uncertainty. We were far from home, the circumstances difficult and anxious. We walked among the Mississippi trees, giants, straight and beautiful. In our darkest moments we had to look up and the Mississippi trees drew our eyes skyward.
God comes to us in many ways, at different times. We are hard pressed at times to sense his presence or direction. Fortunately sometimes he leaves us very large signposts, like trees.
Related Tags: God's comfort, Mississippi, parents, grace, prayer
