“I
Will Come Back to You” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)
(Paul and Barnabas) strengthened the
spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying,
“It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.”
(Acts 14:22)
Your friends make known, O
Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom. (Psalm
145:12)
“You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away, and I will come
back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father;
for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it
happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.” (John 14:28-29)
Piety
Jesus, wrap me in the security of
your love.
Study
We weren’t the kind of people who went to the doctor much,
but several relatives at Thanksgiving dinner had told my parents that cough
of mine was awful. So, the following Monday, Mom and I went to see Dr. Brzica.
Double pneumonia, he pronounced almost immediately and ordered her to get me to
the hospital ASAP. We stopped home first to get some clothes and my security
blanket.
I was five years old. I had never been away from at least one
parent overnight. Kindergarten was three blocks from our house, and my mother
walked me there and came to walk me home every day.
Hospitals were different in the 1960s, even Catholic
hospitals. I could have one visitor at a time for one hour each day. I
recollect that the black-habited sisters who were my nurses were less than
patient with a child who didn’t sleep much due to diminished lung capacity and
homesickness. One of them took away my security blanket.
You have to have sympathy for the apostles. Jesus’s messages
were seldom easy to digest; after all, that was why He told them stories to
help them understand. But that night, change was in the air, and it didn’t feel
like a good change. Judas had left. Their heads may have still been reeling at
the thought of Peter denying Jesus three times. Now, Jesus was talking about
going away and coming back. And this was all supposed to make them feel not
only happy but secure?
He went away in a gruesome, public way. Then He came back,
just like He promised.
The sisters never returned my security blanket. It took me
decades to figure out as the apostles did that true security isn’t found in
people or blankets but belief. When we have that, we are never alone.
Action
Feel Jesus’s embrace today.
Image:
https://pixabay.com/photos/
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