Angels

I’ve  been so blessed in my four score years.
I led a busy and happy life
Until a mean, lung freezing disease
Cut through me like a knife.

My  blessings now come in secret
They are  angels that fill me with awe.
They don’t have six wings as Isaiah said (Isaiah 6:1-2).
Nor the ladder Jacob saw (Genesis 28:10-19),

My  angels  wear T-shirts and blue jeans.
No halos adorn their mussed up hair.
No shimmering  silky white robes do I see,
For they specialize in care!

If there’s anything at all that I need:
A meal, a phone call, greeting or  prayer,
An angel comes quickly to do it for me,
And to overcome any despair.

An angel’s full time job, you see,
Is to care for those in pain.
They fly and sing and praise just for fun,
And bring peace like gentle rain.

21 March 2020 - mshr

Stepping Stones

He was approaching the end of his life and he welcomed the visits of the chaplain. He appreciated hearing scriptures read and praying together, but what he really enjoyed was telling some of his own personal memories. His favorite was a story about stepping stones.

He and his buddy had found a secret pathway to the schoolhouse. They could leave home after the school bus had gone and could still arrive at the schoolhouse just as the teacher was beginning to ring the bell for classes to begin.

The best part of their “secret pathway” was that near the end as they approached the schoolhouse they had to cross the creek on stepping stones they had discovered. It was great fun keeping the other students wondering how they had come without the help of the school bus!

There was a potential problem, however. They learned about it as the cold winds of November had begun to blow. They were so proud of their secret path that they were laughing and joking with such pride that they missed the smooth, dry stepping stones and had to spend the rest of the day at school in wet and clammy clothes!

I've thought of this little tale often and wondered: have I taken the time to choose the smooth, safe stepping stones through the rivers of life? Have you?

28 Feb 2020 - mshr

Preparing a Place

Jesus said, "...I go to prepare a place for you...." (John 14:2). So then why does it take Jesus so long to prepare a place for us while we have to plod through our daily tasks and wait? Haven’t we been helping him to prepare that place everyday of our Lord-led lives? 

Perhaps, but most of us have overstuffed ourselves  like German sausages. Like overinflated balloons we are stuffed full of ourselves. We are so attentive to our own activities and projects that we have little time or space for the Lord. Imagine what a task it is for Him to either carve out the place to fit our size or trim us down eliminating our wants and needs so that we will fit the place He is preparing. No wonder it takes a while.  Some of us will have 70 -- or even 80 -- years to help Him complete that task! But it is never too late to replace our overgrown selfishness with His love which is designed to just fit the place He is preparing.

22 Feb 2020 - mshr

Life's Legacy

Slipping unseen through our life’s daily adventures we build a legacy. A legacy is how others will remember us now and in the future. Our legacy may include the way we look, or the sound of our laughter, or our hobbies. What we could do well and what we could not do at all may be part of the memories we leave with others. How we made them feel while we were together will be cherished.

But a legacy is not the same as an obituary. An obituary is written at the time of death and recounts the accomplishments and successes of the deceased. It includes only facts as if the departed dear one could now be filed in a record book and forgotten.

Throughout our lives we create both legacies and obituaries from the same building materials and the choices we make. God has given us many gifts and it is the choices we make in using them that will fill memories and record books.

Obituaries are filed and usually forgotten. Legacies inspire others. Our legacy lists may preserve memories of each other and continue to comfort us before and after our obituaries are prepared. Fond memories will continue in our minds long after our obituaries are forgotten.

May our memories of each other continue to comfort us long after the forgotten pages of our obituary draw dust inside the record book!

15 Feb 2020 - mshr                                                     

Angel Song

I heard angels sing last night.
It was a glorious heavenly melody
Under the nighttime stars 
          and Christmas lights.

The songs were familiar too:
          “Silent night.”
          “Hark the Herald angels sing.”
          “O little town of Bethlehem.

The story was familiar too... 
          about a heavenly choir
          come to some shepherds
          bringing a message of joy and hope
          because of the birth of a special baby to a young woman.

Last night the faces were familiar.
          but the message was new:
          It was a message of hope and joy 
          to a sick and tired old lady. 

And the angels joined us for tea and cookies.
          What a beautiful Christmas gift! 

MarySue Helstern Rosenberger 

Angel Song

I heard angels sing last night.
          It was a glorious heavenly melody
          Under the nighttime stars 
          and Christmas lights.

The songs were familiar too:
          “Silent night.”
          “Hark the Herald angels sing.”
          “O little town of Bethlehem.”

The story was familiar too... 
          about a heavenly choir
          come to some shepherds
          bringing a message of joy and hope
          because of the birth of a special baby to a young woman.

Last night the faces were familiar.
          but the message was new:
          It was a message of hope and joy 
          to a sick and tired old lady. 

And the angels joined us for tea and cookies.
          What a beautiful Christmas gift! 

"Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu"

When we spent our winters in Texas, we often danced  to this song. As I recall, it was an upbeat excuse for calling off work. (You know, “I’m sick!”)

Well, ten days ago I met his first cousin,”Coughin’ ’Pneumonia and the Sleepin’ Thru Flu”!   He is definitely not an upbeat kind of a dude! He is invisible and attacks you unseen. Although he (or she or it, depending upon your personal image of the gender of the flu!) is spread from one person to another.  But nobody ever told me, “Hey, I just gave you the pneumonia and the flu!” They just let me wait ten to fourteen days to wake up one morning achy, feverish, and coughing my painful head off.

I couldn’t  see this internal misery-maker coming and  I can’t see that bum roaming around inside my body creating pain in everything he touches.  Now it’s my head; now it’s my back. My shoulders, knees and hips feel as if they have been beaten on.  

Finally, that pain-causing invader reached my lungs, already sick of scarring, and the coughing began.  First, a bothersome tickle in my throat; then a hack from the lungs. Deeper and harder grows the cough until it feels as if that invader of my  inner space gathered up all the breath I had left in my lungs and rolls it into a ball. That Flumonia Maker then flung it out of my mouth at the opposite side of the room! So, unable to breathe and too weak to cough, I fell into an exhausted sleep!

Hours later  I woke up and discovered that sleep was exactly what I needed! It gave me the strength I needed to ask for some help.  I knew that an antibiotic would be the only way to break this beast’s hold on my breathing. And so it was, but it took my pharmaceutical savior several days to completely deliver me from this respiratory torture!

I am grateful to be feeling a little better, but I have an important favor to ask of you: “Please, please, keep your flu and pneumonia to yourself!”

(NOTE: Have you had your flu shot yet this year?)

9 Dec 2019 - mshr