REFLECTIONS

Blessing in Disguise

Almost every day Max would roll his motorized wheelchair out the front door of his assisted living home to enjoy the outdoors. At an age too young, Max had suffered a massive stroke that reduced his once active life to the confines of a wheelchair. But we soon learned the limited life that he led did not dampen his joy for living; nor did we find him the least bit reluctant to engage in conversation when we came to visit Mom.

We all knew that Mom would not be with us much longer, so those visits were precious both to us and to Mom. She delivered us into the world, nurtured us, and loved us unconditionally all our lives. Watching her final days left us with heavy hearts, but time with Max gave us much needed relief from our grief.

In these interludes we told stories that made him laugh and that distracted him from the helplessness we were sure he felt. We did our best to help him feel good about life. But little did we realize then that Max helped us much more than we could ever help him.

One of God’s special blessings to us in the world is through the messengers He sends when hearts are heavy. God chose Max to be a blessing to us. Max may have been passing our way along his own journey; or he may have been an angel placed in our path just for us. Either way, Max was a blessing in disguise who lifted our spirits during those difficult days. Through him we felt the message of God’s love.

After Mom passed away, I drove by occasionally to look for Max outside the front door of his institutional home. I found him there once and I stopped by to say hello again. Then he was gone. We don’t know what happened to him, but I’m sure Max is right where God wants him to be just as he was when he was there for us. At the time, we thought we were taking care of him. We know now that Max was there to care for us.

For us, Max was one of God’s messengers timely placed to lift our heavy hearts and to bring good news of great joy that is for all the people—the good news of God’s love.

God calls us to be his messengers too.

“You are the light of the world,”

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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