By coincidence or, perhaps, more appropriately, by God's providence, the chaplain intern ended up on the elevator with the 60-year-old daughter of a 96-year-old woman dying of renal failure. When the chaplain asked the daughter how her mother was doing her response was resolved, yet sad: "She's dying, chaplain." "Yes, I know," he responded, adding, "I'm sorry. How are you?" "I'm okay." But then she paused. "Well no, I'm not," she started hesitatingly. "I don't get it. My mother has been so faithful to God her whole life, but for the last 35 years she has had such awful stuff happen." The daughter gave a quick review of the many personal tragedies her mother had faced right up to the last few years of dialysis and then she choked as she remembered her mother's words. "Everyday she says to me, 'God has been so merciful to me!'" She paused and then added, "I just don't get it."
The chaplain explained to the daughter that her mother was proclaiming her confidence in the promise given her at her Baptism; reinforced at her confirmation; and continually repeated throughout her life when she received Christ's body and blood in Holy Communion. Rather than be distracted by the things around her that seemed to show God had deserted her, she clung to the promises of salvation and resurrection on the last day that were given her through the testimonies of the very apostles that demanded to see Christ's very wounds.
The world is interested in signs and wonders as proof of any given thing. Sadly, all too often the Church mimics the world and demands these signs as well, requiring God show Himself to us through healing or prosperity. In the process, we lose sight of the ultimate promise: eternal life in heaven with Christ. As we trust God's promises may we find our hope is not in the things we can touch, see, and feel, but in God's total promise being completed in our lives, through His Son Jesus.
THE PRAYER: Dear Father, we pray that You would guide our hearts today. Send Your Holy Spirit into our lives that we would trust in Your promises even when the problems of this world seem to accuse us and You. For You have been so merciful to us through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen
Written by Rev. Chaplain James Paul Mueller
Lutheran Senior Services, Heisinger Bluffs
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