We spent this last weekend at a home for the elderly in a small country town, whilst visiting my mom who has Altzheimers. We made them dinner and sat around a large dining room table chatting and asking about their lives. Everyone has a story of their own, followed different paths… but ended up at this special care home at the latter part of their lives.
What really stood out for me, was how God takes care of us through it all. We lose focus of the fact that we are only here for a time… and that life is short. We get caught up with modern life – the busyness of it – forgetting that every day is a gift from God and that nothing we have right now lasts forever. The main topic of discussion at that table was family… not money, not achievements, not positions.
These people have walked their path and are near the end of theirs. They are aware of the frailty of life, the vulnerability, and humility that comes with old age, and see their lives from a different perspective… they are looking back at what’s been, and tell tales from long ago of people they love, and lives they’ve lived.
God has been incredibly good to us. My mom has been living with us for the last two years, during which time we have given her a loving home and the care she needed. However, it came with many challenges as her memory kept fading, with the pressure of finding her a care home, increasing every day. With limited resources and not enough money to put her in any of the homes in our area, the Lord opened the most amazing door in a subsidized Christian care home two hours out of town. It’s a beautiful home, not an institution, run by a strong Christian lady, very experienced in social work and Dementia care.
What is so precious to me, is how God takes care of us through it all. My mom’s path was filled with many great challenges and hardships, however, I can clearly see God’s Loving Hand of Provision throughout all her years. We can truly let go of the striving to ‘get somewhere’, and walk each step with gratitude, faith, and hope in our Living God alone. Let’s build each day well, let’s stop and notice our loved ones, let’s focus on building God’s Kingdom, and not run ahead into tomorrow before the day is over.
There’s wisdom in ‘living in the moment’, and opening our eyes to see what’s really around us. For us visionaries, it’s especially important to remember to live each day to the fullest, for each day is a gift from God.
Matthew 6:19-34
Lay Up Treasures in Heaven
19“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and ruste destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,23but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.f
Do Not Be Anxious
25“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?g 28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
