When you’re “shut out (quarantined)”, He attends
Over the weekend, friends of ours received word that their daughter had been in a bad accident. She was flown to a hospital…where her parents could not go. That quarantine? It’s gettin’ real.
I watched the updates come through my feed. She is scheduled for surgery today, and while they give thanks for the fact that there seems to be no spinal or head injury, there’s a possibility that she may be left with permanent nerve damage in one leg. And so, later today, that long surgery.
I was thinking about them and the agony they must feel, not being able to see her with their eyes, to touch her with their hands, to be physically present in the waiting room as the surgeons do their work. And then I saw Lord Christ.
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Beside a hospital bed as machines whir, and tubes and wires and drips do their work, there He stands. In my mind’s eye, He wears a robe of white. There is light all about Him, and light upon the bed. Light and warmth on their hurting, injured girl.
Then the orderlies come. They whisk her away. Through hospital corridors beneath a mound of dressings and sheets, they roll. And walking beside, Lord Christ. He holds her hand.
Into the operating theater where surgery’s just begun. As the nurses attend and the surgeons, they work, here, too, The Friend. The room is bathed in light.
“She is shut up unto Me.” In my listening ears, a gentle Voice, and I know that she’s not alone. For though loved ones are barred, Jesus never can be, and so she’s wholly (and wonderfully) in His care.
Today, I’m thinking of my hurting fellow Americans who are separated from their loved ones right now. In hospitals, or nursing homes, or quarantined in houses, this is what I want you to know–that your loved ones are not alone. That Jesus is shut up with them. Jesus, our fellow “shut-in.”
I want you to know that Jesus is with you as well. Jesus, our blessed companion. Jesus, our Shepherd and Friend. And where He is, there is light, and warmth, and love.
“The Lord is our God, and we are His people, the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 95:7).”
accident, corona, Jesus, quarantine, sheep, shut in, virus