My family recently visited Mr. R, our adopted nursing home resident that was assigned to us at a recent church project. To our surprise, Mr. R was
very young and had a different profile than the other residents. He was 63 years old, had an above knee amputation, and was widowed 6 weeks ago. His two children and three grandchildren live far away and he is all alone. Poor health led him to the nursing home and in spite of all that, he was thrilled to meet us.
On our way home, my children had many questions about our experience. One question in particular stuck with me. My oldest son asked me why Mr. R was so happy when his life was so hard. I was surprised by my son’s insight, but was able to answer. You see during our short visit with Mr. R, he shared with us about his strong faith in God and alluded to that as his source of strength. His Bible was nearby and he told us he reads it daily. As we were leaving, he asked if he could pray with us. He humbly thanked God for his new family and the joy this opportunity brought him.
This project was designed as an opportunity to reach out to the nursing home residents, but rather, I was impacted the most. I learned two lessons: First, keep faith in God regardless of your circumstances. Second, don’t get too busy to reach out to others. You will miss the blessing. Have you reached out to someone today?
