Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”. John 15:13
It was early on Thursday morning when I walked into his room at Providence Hospital in Everett. A smile on his face hid the discomfort that he was experiencing. His pain was tolerable thanks to medication, but his body had been traumatized and no position in that bed offered him comfort. One day removed from surgery we shared a prayer of thanksgiving. There was reason for optimism, an air of hope in the room. If the surgery was successful, if the cancer could be held at bay, if the alien cells could be destroyed by the chemo that would follow, then perhaps there would be few more years. The surgeon entered the room, standing tall and confident. I offered to leave but my friend bid me to stay. The news was good, “It took 5 hours, but everything went well. We had to give you two units of blood but that was to be expected. We are going to keep you for another day or two to monitor your wound but then you should be able to go home. We will make a treatment plan before you are discharged.”
My friend smiled, relieved at the words he had heard. He thanked the doctor and shook his hand. Then as he was about to slip out the door the doctor stopped to add one more word. “Oh, and when we did the bone graft for reconstruction, we had to use donor bone but that too was expected.” We were alone now, it was silent except for the sound of the infusion pump which provided liquid and medication. “Donor blood pastor, and donor bone. I am not sure that I will ever have communion again without thinking of that. Someone sacrificed for me, someone died.”
It was cold winter morning when I got the call. It was a Sunday at 5 a.m. as I raced up Highway 525 to his home on West Beach on the outskirts of Oak Harbor. He was weak, tired and worn from the fight that continued long after that day at Providence Hospital. Lying in his deathbed, his wife was tenderly shaving him. He told me that he was going to meet Jesus today and he was not going to look disheveled. Clean shaven and faithful, he had faced death so many times in his life, in Vietnam, and at the Bay of Pigs, that this predictable ending held no terror for him. He was not afraid and he was not alone. We read scripture and prayed, I thanked him for teaching me about faith, how to live and how to die.
He sent me on my way back to Trinity for the 8 am service. One hand on the wheel, left just one hand to wipe the tears from my eyes, blurring the landscape of Whidbey Island as my car retraced the same roads that it had traversed just one hour earlier. He died that day. He was born to leave and so he did. We were born to leave and so we will. Those precious moments at the hospital and that final farewell at his home are never far from me. The silent whispers echo in my mind each Sunday morning.
This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you.
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
Pastor Jim
rvlindus@whidbey.com
