Things are looking better, there's sunshine on the other side of the dense clouds of responsibility that were obscuring my vision at the end of last week. The Gospel message yesterday centered on the woman with the crippled spirit from the 13th chapter of Luke, Jesus healed her from her ailment of eighteen years by laying his hands on her. She stood up straight and began praising God! The accompanying text reminded us that the same healing help is available regardless of what it is that cripples us... we only need to decide how we choose to receive that help.
Message received, loud and clear... or so I thought!
After church we ate downtown; my husband and son planned to stop, following our meal, at a local big-box home improvement store before we left the city and headed home. My mother-in-law chose not to go into the store, I stayed back in the car to wait with her while they ran in for the item they needed. It was a lovely afternoon, but warm, I lowered the car window in hopes of catching a passing breeze. I rested my arm on the open sill while she and I chatted about our plans for the week to come, I was turned toward her when someone suddenly grabbed my hand through the open car window! Huh? I was face to face now with a man, a stranger, who was mumbling something about how he couldn't help himself, he was just too tempted to grab a hold of my hand! Without saying a word, I firmly jerked my hand free from his grasp! He wandered off to his own car, laughing, and drove away. I was beyond furious and at the same time I was highly aware that my elderly mother-in-law is easily frightened; I looked to her to gauge her reaction and managed to remain steady and calm following this creepy "assault". She said she thought that must have been someone I knew, at first. When I explained to her that it wasn't, she dug down in her purse and quietly offered me her hand-sanitizer. About that time my husband and son reappeared from the store. It was over that quick, the guy was gone. Today I am left reeling by this 'personal space' invasion, a residual feeling of anger and confusion remains. Yet, I'm reminded again of yesterday's text. Jesus comes among us with words, and hands, to set us free; whether we're bowed down by responsibilities, or fear. I'm listening, I'm accepting... but, I'm also clearly aware of how important it is to be careful out there in the world. There are dangers, to be sure, and we can choose to let them hold us down or to swiftly pull away and rise up above the clouds, the burdens, the fears. I want to respond, in faith, like the healed woman; or like my mother-in-law, who praises God by offering her 'healing hands' to me in the form of an anti-bacterial gel named Purell.
Life is Good!
These are busy days, post vacation. It's a good thing I got plenty of R&R while I was gone, I need it now. I'm playing catch-up with various classes, commitments and everyday responsibilities. Lucy Ann's Easter dress is officially crossed off the "to-do" list. We have clean clothes, the mail has been managed and there is dinner on the table every evening, no small feat while running as fast as I can to stay abreast. Plus, tasks ahead are looming large. I should sort through 752 vacation photographs and arrange at least some of them into a slide show capturing the highlights of our journey through the Panama Canal. There is a graduating class of sixteen at church that will soon be needing quilts. Quiltkeemosabe and I used to tease each other about running so fast we needed to head sideways to keep from taking off; these days I believe there's a lot of truth in that...at any rate, it's advice I'm heeding. I can't risk taking any chances, who knows where I'd land?
