Monday, July 5, 2021                        (today’s lectionary)
Â
Late night preachers and all night fireworks
When Jacob came upon a certain shrine, as the sun had already set, he stopped there for the night. Taking one of the stones from the shrine, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep at the spot.
Margaret really enjoyed them for a few early mornings, since she can’t sleep for long in her hospital bed: Andrew Wommack at 2 am, Joseph Prince at 3 am, and/or Joyce Meyer at 4. She skipped past MSNBC and Fox to TBN and Daystar. Wommack especially perked her interest because of his roots in the same movement Margaret came from, the Church of Christ. And Mr. Wommack was Texas born in 1949, which of course is the year Margaret was Kentucky born. She thought late-night TV was dead boring, but it’s not.
Jacob had a dream: a stairway rested on the ground, with its top reaching into the heavens, and God’s messengers were going up and down on it.
She had some hopeful interactions today with the cardio team’s PA, as well as two physical therapists and an occupational therapist. Casey, Megan and Erin all loved her up, and for good reason. She’s getting up easily from her chair, moving around smoothly, losing fluid and eating well. The PA told her she was medically ready to move on to her inpatient rehab at Encompass in Round Rock.
Our friend Hollis from Encompass told us Friday they are ready for us, waiting only for medical clearance. Sounds like the magic Venn diagram has joined, and so I guess she’ll be getting in her ambulance tomorrow for the short ride north. If it turns out to be Tuesday, so be it. We’re ready whenever.
And the Lord stood beside Jacob and told him, “Know that I am with you. I will protect you wherever you go. I will never leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Jacob awoke, anointed the stone he slept on, and called the site BETHEL, the “place of God.”
Andi came in the afternoon and removed Margaret’s wall of pictures and praises, ready to transport them to her next home. This afternoon the Tomitas sat by their neighborhood street and watched the parade, firetruck, police cars, and swim teams throwing candy, then Andi headed downtown. Together Andi and her mom listened to the music of “The Capitol Fourth,” enjoying a few of their own 525,600 minutes this year, measuring their lives in love in this season of love (thanks, Pentatonix).
In God we trust. Under his wings we take refuge. In God, we place our trust.
But that was just the beginning of Margaret’s night. She LOVES fireworks. I imagine when they got started in DC, that she was directing them, along with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture … red and white and blue, green and gold and orange explosions bursting over Washington’s Monument, Lincoln’s Memorial, that amazing long rectangle of green the National Mall and the Reflecting Pool: beautiful bombs bursting in air, and she was right up there in the sky with them.
A woman sick for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the tassel on his cloak. “If only I can touch his cloak, I will be cured.” Jesus turned and saw her, and he said, “Courage, daughter! Your faith HAS saved you.”
I hope Margaret also got to watch out her hallway window when the downtown Austin fireworks began. But I know her heart was lifted by this year’s Capitol Fourth, as seventy-six trombones hit the counterpoint, and the caissons went rolling along, while during our own moment in the American experience, we all prayed for our country.
(Genesis 28, Psalm 91, 2 Timothy 1, Matthew 9)
#
