Wake Up Call Today

Yesterday and today, I had wake-up calls regarding how suddenly we can be called to leave this earth. One of our charity-crafters in our senior mobile home community, 69 in August, did a housecleaning job on Monday, entered the hospital on Tuesday, and is in hospice as I write this.

Ingrid is a sweet, frail-looking but fiercely independent soul. She took pride in taking care of her husband. None of us knew how much she suffered recently with stomach pain. To make a long story shorter and get to my point, she was not eating enough and her stomach acids eroded so much of her stomach that they can do nothing for her, surgically or otherwise. Tubes will be removed this evening, and it's only a matter of a few days until she is called home to the Lord. We suspect that she suspected what was happening. She'd had similar trouble years ago.

Recently, she pushed to fill her freezer to almost-bursting with food, so much so that her husband will not have to worry for quite a while. She also saw him through recent extensive surgery on his leg and foot and he is still in a cast. We will miss her a lot. I am grateful that she is now in a place where she is getting pain meds and she seems to have made her peace with the Lord. She is quite calm.

The point is - at last Friday's charity-crafting session, none of us expected that within days, we would lose her. Life is fragile. Over and over, in the Bible, we are cautioned that we should live with an eye to eternity. We know we should obey the simple but firm Commandments. We know that and a lot more. But we still live as though there is no tomorrow. We act as though we have all the time in the world in which to mend our ways.

Our mending might not be severe. Most of us are not murderers or child molesters or thieves. But we do lie a bit, cheat a little, cuss to a degree, neglect the sick and elderly even though not on purpose, and often are judgmental and gossipy about the character of others. Every time I experience someone's being called to the Lord very suddenly, I promise myself I will try to stay on track. Sad to say, I am a daughter of Eve, and prone to slippages in the promise-keeping area.

Father, please ease little Ingrid's suffering as she waits for your final word, and please bless me with all the grace and gifts of the Spirit that I need to mend my ways; remind me when I need it, that you can call me at anytime, and I should always be ready and that I should live my life with an eye to eternity with you in heaven.