Meditation:
 Struck with inflammatory rheumatoid arthritis at age 48, my mother knew pain as her constant companion until released from her body in death 20 years later.
Gradual replacement of her ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, and a few finger joints - 14 surgeries - restored a little mobility and relieved some pain until the disease struck a new joint.
We went the route of so many and investigated faith healers, copper bracelets, special diets – anything to quell the onslaught of the disease. In time my mother and our family came to accept her lot in life and began to search out a means of coping rather than removal of the affliction.
I learned so much from my mother’s battle with rheumatoid arthritis. I watched her grieve each lost ability, each disfigured limb, each friend that moved on when she could not keep up. I heard her prayers and her tears and felt her helplessness. I was moved by her faith as she identified with Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross and asked for his help and understanding with her own cross. I believe she could feel his pain and betrayal in a way only those who suffer can.
Jesus entered into the human condition willingly. It was a decision, a choice, born out of the deepest and broadest compassion for his people. He knew what was ahead. He felt the suffering of a whole broken world. He carried its sorrow and knew their grief.
My mother found comfort in music, and often sang a gospel song penned by Charles Weigle, a Lutheran-born, Methodist itinerant evangelist and songwriter best known for these words penned in depression after his wife left him:
No one ever cared for me like Jesus;
There's no other friend so kind as He.
No one else could take the sin and darkness from me;
O how much He cared for me.
I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus,
since I found in Him a friend so strong and true.
I would tell you how He changed my life completely;
He did something no other friend could do.
All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me;
all my heart was full of misery and woe,
Jesus placed His strong arms about me,
and He led me in the way I ought to go.
Ev'ry day He comes to me with new assurance;
more and more I understand His word of love.
But I'll never know just why He came to save me,
till someday I see His blessed face above. |
