I sat beside my friend as she lounged in the recliner tucked on the perimeter of the activity room. This senior’s residential care facility had been her new home for just over a month. She lives with Alzheimer’s.
On my third visit, I inadvertently referred to a previous interaction. She looked puzzled. “You’ve come to see me before? Oh, what a shame that I can’t remember that”, to which I replied, “Well, we’re here now.” She smiled and said, “Yes, and we’re having a lovely time being together, aren’t we?”
My friend doesn’t miss me. She won’t anticipate me coming again. But when I am with her, she is attentive and present to me because she only lives in the moment. And that causes me to wonder, Am I being fully present to those I interact with? Or am I caught up in the “nurse and rehearse” of the past? Or mentally running down future roads with anticipation or anxiety?
When God says “I am with you”, he means right now. I know his history of faithfulness and, in faith I believe he will accompany me into my future. But the comfort of knowing that he is right here, present to me, draws me into deeper relationship and desire to know him.
Lord, please help me to give my full attention to each person I relate with today, knowing that you are always with me. Amen.
Throughout This Day: If you become distracted or begin to worry, ask the Lord to help you bring your thoughts back to the present so you can genuinely be with people.
Photo Credit: Lucian Andrei on Unsplash