Another day we are blessed with. Erin is due today to shift on to rehab. Finishing fourth week of hospital stay. Away from home for quite a while. Relying more and more on the home of The Light, Love, and Joy of Jesus that is with us each day in each location and situation. Also with each breath as I often write. This has so much more meaning with Erin struggling for breaths these last few months and really these last ten years culminating in a month ago almost going on to the next phase of eternal life with Christ.
Appreciating each day and breath is something that I often seek to realize. Being on the 11th floor of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston makes it easy to appreciate this. Erin has come back from the edge of taking the next step on to heaven. Some of the families that I have been chumming with these last three weeks in the family lounge have loved ones that are making the big shift on to eternal life.
Yesterday, this shift happened. A night of changes left the loved one with zero percent chance of candidacy for lung after hanging on for three weeks at 2% chance. Hospice time.
Yes, The Light, Love, and Joy of Jesus is bigger than this shift and loss. Yes this loved one is a gorgeous contribution to the Quilt of Creation. She is a beautiful beautiful stitch in this awesome tapestry that Christ has Created.
Yesterday, Erin was able to share her near death experience along with her experience of the gorgeousness of what is to come with one of the family members experiencing this deep loss. It helped them so much. Two ladies from our church, Saint Katherine Drexel in Alton, New Hampshire, have likewise shared the bounteous beauty of our next life with others bringing consolation to us worried for the departing loved ones. The funny thing is how all three of them have shared the irritation with God for sending them back here. The next step is nicer they report.
All the same, my eyes are quite clean with all of the washing they have been getting with Erin getting close to taking that step so many times in the last year and in these last few weeks. And further cleaning achieved with the loss of the family I have been sitting with in the waiting room.
This Quilt of Creation Christ Created that we all share and we are all an integral part of is so gorgeously gorgeous. Yes we miss the stitch that is our loved one. Yes, we honor our loved ones and carry on some of their essence as we assist Christ with the ongoing Creation of Creation becoming the most beautiful stitch we are able to be.
Through these challenging times, we are called to see the rest of the Quilt of Creation’s beauty as we navigate heart hurts. I came across a portion of the collection of my favorite Bible verses this morning that spoke to me about this that I copy below.
Collosians 1:9-12 …. we have never failed to pray for you, and what we ask God is that through perfect wisdom and spiritual understanding you should reach the fullest knowledge of his will. So you will be able to lead the kind of life which the Lord expects of you, a life acceptable to him in all its aspects; showing the results in all the good actions you do and increasing your knowledge of God. You will have in you the strength, based on his own glorious power, never to give in, but to bear anything joyfully, thanking the Father who has made it possible for you to join the saints and with them to inherit the light.
Proverbs 24:10 If you lose heart, when adversity comes your strength will only be weakness.
1 Peter 2:11 I urge you, my dear people, while you are visitors and pilgrims to keep yourselves free from the selfish passions that attack the soul.
2 Thessalonians 3:16 May the Lord of peace himself give you peace all the time and in every way. The Lord be with you all.
Psalm 44:8 … our boast was always of God, we praised your name without ceasing.
John 5:24 I tell you most solemnly, whoever listens to my words, and believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life ….
Jeremiah 9:22-23 Thus says Yahweh, ‘Let the sage boast no more of his wisdom, nor the valiant of his valor, nor the rich man of his riches! But if anyone wants to boast, let him boast of this: of understanding and knowing me. For I am Yahweh, I rule with kindness, justice and integrity on earth; yes, these are what please me – it is Yahweh who speaks.
Proverbs 16:24 Kindly words are a honeycomb, sweet to the taste, wholesome to the body.
2 Peter 1:2 May you have more and more grace and peace as you come to know our Lord more and more.
Jeremiah 23:23-24 “Am I a God when near-it is Yahweh who speaks and not one when far away? Can anyone hide in a dark corner without my seeing him?-it is Yahweh who speaks. Do I not fill heaven and earth?-it is Yahweh who speaks.
I love you and so does Jesus, God, and Holy Spirit along with Mother Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint Anne Beupre, Saint Anthony, Saint Joan, Saint Francis, Saint Theresa of Avila, Saint Michael, Saint Margaret, Saint Vincent de Paul, your Guardian Angel, all the Holy Angels, and all the Holy Saints.