Unintended Grace

Near the end of the day, I received the names of two new patients who both lived in the same nursing home, and while it was close on time, I decided it would give me more flexibility toward the end of the week to see them straight away.  I hadn't intended to see the newest ones but it just seemed best.

One of the two didn't seem like she wanted to talk at all.  If I didn't carry the conversation, it ground to a halt.  There were periods of silence.  I kept trying to engage a woman who never glanced in my direction, who simply stared straight ahead.  But slowly, she began to share her story and we found a moment of grace where we speak a common language of faith.  We finished our visit with an old hymn and a prayer.

I called the patient's daughter afterwards to connect with family and to relate both how things went and what I observed in her mother.  The daughter's response was so much more immediate than the patitent's.  She was so thankful for the visit and the spiritual emphasis.  She was touched that her mother and I had a moment of grace.

She began to tell me their story and their struggle over the phone and how that they had gotten away from going to church and lost connection with any Christian fellowship since their move to the area.  She began to share her struggle with finding a place to belong and her failure to continue the pursuit of Christian fellowship.  She me how much she missed it and wanted to find a church family.

I actually talked more with the daughter on the phone than the patient in the bed.  But she was the one who needed a moment of grace the most.  Her knowing that I not shared the Word, sang a hymn and prayed with mother, struck a chord in her heart, reigniting a flame that had all but gone out.  I hadn't intended to spend that amount of time on the phone, I wasn't sure I'd get anything more than a chance to leave a voicemail.  But God intended her to be touched by grace.

The apostle Paul said, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Gal 6:9).  This promise is true even when it may not be the harvest you intended.  As you continue sowing seeds, some fall onto ground you weren't aiming at, some grow where you had not intended to plant.  But the seed grows nonetheless.

You don't have to know who the intended recipient of grace really is, you just have to share what you have, as you have opportunity.  God will open the ears and hearts of those He intended to hear. As Paul also wrote, "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow" (1 Cor 3:6).   Jus' Say'n.