Nearing Home - Billy Graham [41]
Caring can take many forms—from helping them make funeral arrangements to simply telling them how much their loved one meant to you. It may mean listening to them as they recount the events of the last few days or weeks. Over the years Ruth must have dispensed hundreds of gallons of homemade soup to families in our community who had gathered for a loved one’s funeral. Look for some way you can help, and then do it even if it is just washing the dishes or keeping a register of visitors. But be sensitive; some people are reluctant to accept help from people who are not close friends.
Keep in Touch
Often when someone dies, there is a flurry of activity at first— relatives gather, people call, flowers arrive, and people come by to express sympathy. But time passes, and so does our concern. “At first everyone called or stopped by,” one woman wrote me, “but it’s been six months since Jim died, and now no one calls to see how I’m doing. It’s as if I’ve been forgotten.”
But it shouldn’t be this way—especially among Christians. The Bible says, “Show mercy and compassion to one another” (Zechariah 7:9). One former accountant devotes his retirement years to helping those who have recently lost a spouse deal with insurance or legal papers they may not understand. I heard about another man who spends several days a week driving older people who recently lost a spouse to doctors’ appointments.
Pray for Them
Pray that they will experience God’s comfort, and pray, too, that they will turn to Christ for the peace and hope they need. If you had lost a loved one recently, wouldn’t you be glad to learn that others were praying for you?
NEARING HOME WITH GOD’S COMFORT
Death is always an intruder even when it is expected. It disrupts our lives and brings grief in its wake. No one welcomes death’s legacy of pain and emptiness and loneliness—but God has not abandoned us, and even in the midst of life’s greatest sorrows His Word is still true: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). This is a wonderful promise, filled with assurance, in the face of sorrow and death. Through God’s Word we are able to draw from His presence that lives within us through His Holy Spirit. The Lord also sends comfort through others, and we need to ask Him to reveal those around us who are praying for God’s comfort because He often sends it through His servants.
It always warms my heart to read Paul’s salutations and greetings in his epistles to those who have served him and with him in ministry. A particular reference is especially insightful: “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too” (Romans 16:13). Rufus happened to be the son of Simon the Cyrene, who was called out from the crowd to carry the cross for Jesus.
Scripture does not mention Paul’s parents, but in this passage our hearts are touched by the apostle’s loving acknowledgement of this dear mother. She is the wife of Simon, and while we are not given details, it is apparent that this elderly mother cared for Paul during his ministry.
Can you imagine the conversations that Paul and Rufus must have had with Simon’s wife as she recounted the day her husband was called upon to help carry the cross of Jesus up Calvary’s road to His destination of death? Paul surely recounted his trip on the road to Damascus. His destination that day was to capture Christians and return them to Jerusalem where they also would face death. Can you fathom the joy this mother felt to know that her son, Rufus, was serving with the man whom the Lord miraculously saved and called to bring the saving Gospel to the world? She obviously grew to love Paul as one of her own and made a significant impression on Paul as Scripture records. What a blessing this elderly mother would have missed had she not opened her home and heart to the beloved apostle Paul.
While many older folks are not able to care for themselves, many are still capable and can care for others in various