As I was out with my sister to a medical appointment today, I began thinking about her life-long dependence on her family. My sister has been mentally impaired and has had a speech impairment since birth. Oxygen deprivation. She lives with our parents and depends on others of us to help her with certain things in life. Things that most of us take for granted, like driving ourselves to the doctor. Like choosing who our doctor will be. Like making our own appointments. Like deciding what day we would even prefer to go. But she cannot make these decisions or go anywhere unless we help her. I think that's why she walks twice a day in our little neighborhood where everyone knows her. She can go by herself, go when she wants to go, and greet the neighbors that she meets.
I often wonder where she would go outside the neighborhood if she could just up and go. Sometimes one of us will ask her to go shopping, maybe just to look at the pretty things and have lunch out, just to give her an opportunity to get out and about. Sometimes she mentions that she 'needs' something. Sometimes she hints that she 'still has her money'. But I've never heard her ask if anyone will take her anywhere.
She is dependent on those who love her. She is dependent on our care for her. Dependent on the God-given grace in our own lives to look beyond ourselves and see her needs.
And that's when God confronts me. To look beyond myself, where I too often focus.
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved,
put on a heart of compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness and patience
~ Colossians 3:12
Painting ~ Never Mind, Frederick Morgan 1827-1947
