Monday, June 14, 2021                      (today’s lectionary)
A very acceptable time for salvation
At three am on Sunday morning Margaret woke up to use the bathroom, but then she was so dizzy she couldn’t get out of bed. The red nurse’s button was beside her, right where it is supposed to be for once, and she pushed it. By that time she was really nauseous too.
Within an hour she felt much better, but the report triggered a C-T scan and a test for stroke. Her score on the stroke test was perfect. No stroke. Her blood pressure and heart rate returned to normal, and that brought her whole body back to normal. There was nothing “remarkable” on the C-T scan. Not sure what happened, but it did make her night pretty short.
The Lord has made known his salvation. Sing to the Lord a new song.
Chris came along to the hospital with me again on Sunday morning. He was triple-tasking. Besides watching both Springfield and Austin church services with Margaret, and just having a sweet conversation with her, he was also solving a computer-driven snafu with SW Airlines, so all four of his family could get their tickets checked in. One ticket wouldn’t confirm, so he talked twice to a SW human and got the problem solved, although they had to split up into twos and take separate flights.
Later Andi spearheaded a short food contest and game hour, on Zoom with Marc in Urbana and us at the hospital, Â and everyone else together. What would you make with peanut butter and one other ingredient? Peanut butter supremes, buckeyes, and half a warmed apple with peanut butter, chocolate ganache and Mexican caramel? Our scorecards let us give each treat marks for presentation, taste, smell, texture, and creativity.
Aly (9), Miles (4) and Dave (71) made the buckeyes. But we weren’t the winners. The peanut butter supremes (Margaret, Andi and Jack) took first prize. As part of the presentation, Jack made little flags and mounted them on toothpicks above their dessert.
Probably this wasn’t the best way for Margaret to finish supper, but oh well. After we ate and judged the desserts, we played some parts of Cranium online for awhile. Good times.
Do not receive the grace of God in vain. Now is a very acceptable time, now is the day of salvation.
Sundays are for Sabbath, and for rest, for naps, for sleep. I didn’t get much, so I went to bed early, besides snoozing on Andi and Aki’s couch while Jasper played with my suspenders.
In the late afternoon we took a trip to Topgolf, that fancy indoor driving range. The hostess kindly told me one of my suspenders was loose. Thanks, Jasper. It takes a little bit to connect a back suspender without a mirror, but I got it! I also hit a few golf balls for the first time in three years or more. It felt wonderful. And a few hours later, nothing bent or broken in my back.
I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two .
This particular Sunday is also the beginning of surgery week, at least that’s what we expect. One day at a time. Chris named his trouble with the airline tickets “very clearly a first world problem.” And even our occasional impatience and irritation with the hospital, with the food, with a nurse now and then … all, yes, first world problems. It was 97 degrees in Austin today. In Margaret’s room the air conditioning worked just fine. She had water and ice whenever she asked. Her bottom sheet might get wrinkled, but that’s because her bed can be raised and lowered in two places, adjusted to her own body.
So I was tired, but it was good, before I left last night, to rub lotion into Margaret’s back and feet, put her hospital socks back on. Just be grateful together, all the way from head to toe.
(2 Corinthians 6, Psalm 98, Psalm 119, Matthew 5)
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