The Real Deal

Arriving earlier than usual this morning at the Church office, I found my Pastor waiting impatiently for me to write his latest epiphany. He had a story to tell and wanted it written by my skillful hand.

“Yesterday,” he said, “was a beautiful day of contrasts and sameness.” He went on (endlessly, it seemed) about the juxtaposition of two encounters that had been a part of his Sunday.

First, there was the old man (93 to be exact) who has been separated from his wife by her Alzheimer’s disease. They have been married for 68 years and just in the past month she had been moved from their meager assisted living room to a “memory care” unit in another facility. He, left alone without her, was struggling, hurting, lonely, despairing, sure he could not survive the loss of her company – as difficult as it was – even though she barely knows him anymore. How would he survive without the “llove of his life.”

Now, here he was at Morning Worship, with map in hand, to a new facility where in the next few weeks they would be reunited at the same “care center.” She would be in the Alzheimer’s unit, and he would be in the assisted living wing. “Only a hundred yards apart,” he smiled, “and I can be with her every day.” His enthusiasm was that of a teen-aged boy approaching his first date with the girl sure to become the light of his life. It was as if a unbearable burden had been lifted from him, and all would soon be well.

“Then,” said the preacher, “I had a young couple coming for pre-marriage counseling in the afternoon.” He told me how he had invited them in and begin the process of helping them to understand what marriage is, how it works, and how to survive when so many don’t.  Near the end of the hour, he related, I begin to tell them the story about the old man and his undying llove for the girl of his dreams; of their 68 years together, and the revelation that “two had become one” just as God plans  in the marriage relationship. The soon to be bride’s eyes filled with tears (as did the preacher’s) and the young man strained to control his emotions as well – as they learned the Truth – that marriage is a sacred bond, that rightly lived, brings two people into one life that becomes the clearest analogy of Christ’s relationship with His Church.

“Reality is the best example,” the preacher said. “I told them – and I ‘showed’ them. It doesn’t get any better than that.”