Husbands,
love your wives,
even
as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.
Ephesians 5:25
Yesterday morning at the beginning of the worship service, the pastor announced
that Robertson McQuilkin will be visiting our church one Sunday in October to
bring a special message about marriage. I, of course, was elated because I know
who Robertson McQuilkin is and would very much like the chance to meet him in
person. However, as I thought more about the subject last night, I remembered a
very special lady who was a neighbor and dedicated member of the church that I
grew up in. Mrs. Shirley had multiple sclerosis, commonly known as MS, and each
Sunday I would watch her husband care for her as if she was the most important
person in the world.
I attended church with Mrs. Shirley for eleven years. And every Sunday for
those eleven years, I would watch her husband wheel her to their pew, lift her
out of her wheelchair and position her comfortably on the pew, and then push
her wheel chair to the front of the sanctuary before returning to her side.
Then, when the service had ended, Mrs. Shirley’s husband would walk to the
front of the sanctuary, bring the wheelchair back to the pew where Mrs. Shirley
was sitting, place her gently in the wheelchair, and proceed to wheel her
through the winding hallways of the old church building to the wheelchair accessible
door where she would then wait for him to bring the car around and lift her
once again out of her wheelchair and into the car.
I watched Mrs. Shirley’s husband carry out that same selfless routine every
Sunday for eleven years. However, what I did not see was him lifting her out of
the car when they arrived home. I did not see him prepare Sunday dinner. I did
not see him feed his wife. I did not see him wash and put away the dishes. I
did not see him vacuum the floors and dust the furniture. I did not see him
help Mrs. Shirley into her bed at night. I did not see him prepare her
breakfast and help her get dressed the next morning. I saw none of that, yet I
know he did it every day for more than twenty years.
Growing up, I thought nothing of seeing Mrs. Shirley’s husband meet her
every need. However, today, I look back and see one of the greatest love
stories ever written. He didn’t have to wait on her like that. He could have
shipped her off to a nursing home, and the society in which we now live would
have supported him one hundred percent. He could have divorced Mrs. Shirley and
married someone else who could wait on him, and the society in which we now
live would have supported that decision one hundred percent also. However, he
chose the biblical route. He chose to love Mrs. Shirley as Christ loves the
church, and that meant dying to himself, putting her needs before his own.
In response to a comment made by Pat Robertson about a year or so ago
concerning divorce and Alzheimer’s, Joni Eareckson Tada said the following:
At the Joni and Friends International Disability
Center, we encounter thousands of couples who, despite living with serious
disabling conditions, showcase the grace of God in their weakness every day.
Marriage is designed to be a picture of God’s sacrificial love for us.
Alzheimer’s disease is never an ‘accident’ in a marriage; it falls under the purview
of God’s sovereignty. In the case of someone with Alzheimer's, this means God's
unconditional and sacrificial love has an opportunity to be even more
gloriously displayed in a life together![1]
I know what Joni said is true because I have witnessed it firsthand. Mrs.
Shirley and her husband were love personified. As one lady said of her parents,
“It was the ‘being there’ when nothing was left but the bad. It was one taking
care of the other in the most humbling of ways. It was one depending on the
other with as much faith as she had.”[2]
I know that it was only by the grace of God that Mrs. Shirley’s husband
was able to care for her in such a selfless and sacrificial way for all those
years. It was that same grace that sent Jesus to that old, rugged cross to die
for crimes He had not done (2 Corinthians 5:21). And if you will turn from all
sin and trust Jesus Christ alone to save you, that same grace will save you
today and keep you saved forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment
This blog is intended to help you. I want to be able to post all comments and questions you might have, so I ask that you follow a few rules in order for me to do that. Any questions/comments that don't follow these guidelines will be thrown out:
1. Absolutely no profane, blasphemous, or immoral comments.
2. Comments containing links will not be approved.
3. Please keep your comments relevant to the post on which you are commenting. All irrelevant comments will be rejected. Remember, your comments should be helpful to other readers as well.
Thank you so much for reading!