A Message for You

The ashen remains of our house stood for three months after the fire. Often I had to meet the insurance agent there to further process our claim. It was always difficult to go “home.” Though the shell of the home still stood, the life we had lived within its walls seemed long past. Every now and then, beneath the layers of soot, I found an item that could be salvaged. There was a bronze cross my parents had given to me that hung by the back door. Underneath the charred remains of our lives, I found it. Now it hangs in our new home, a reassuring link from the lost past to the joy of the present moment.

Those of you who have loved ones suffering from Alzheimer’s know what it is like to lose the past. Your mother looks the same but her eyes are vacant. As the disease progresses, your husband no longer recognizes you. How difficult it is to make a trip to see them. Everything about the loved one’s “shell” reminds you of a wonderful past you shared with them. But there seems to be no connection in the present. Your love leads you to continue to visit them in spite of the heartache. Every now and then there is a treasure to be found in that present moment. She knows you are her daughter. He says your name. He refers to a moment you share from the past. You carry that moment away with you as a gift.

Sometimes we are reminded that all we have is the present moment. We try to pin down our future, drawing on events from the past. But what we have is the present, and it may just hold a surprise for you—a treasure you carry forward. No matter what you have lost, trust that God is with you. Even when the future looks uncertain, trust that God will bless you in the gift of each moment. And that is enough!