Friday, September 16, 2011

Til Death Do Us Part

I just read an article at Christianity Today, "CT Classic: Living by Vows" which is a wonderful recounting of how a seminary president is caring for his wife who has Alzheimers.

The whole story itself is beautiful and well-worth reading. But one thing stood out to me.

But she can say one sentence, and she says it often: "I love you."

She not only says it, she acts it. The board arranged for a companion to stay in our home so I could go daily to the office. During those two years it became increasingly difficult to keep Muriel home. As soon as I left, she would take out after. me. With me, she was content; without me, she was distressed, sometimes terror stricken. The walk to school is a mile round trip. She would make that trip as many as ten times a day. Sometimes at night, when I helped her undress, I found bloody feet. When I told our family doctor, he choked up. "Such love," he said simply. Then, after a moment, "I have a theory that the characteristics developed across the years come out at times like these." I wish I loved God like that-desperate to be near him at all times. Thus she teaches me, day by day.


I pray that I will be the kind of wife and mother that if something should happen later in life, I would be characterized by the kind of love described here.

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