A Gaze Into the Morning
I awoke pretty early this morning. I walked out into the starlit sky. In the quietness of the morning, each step’s motion announces the arrival of another crushed leaf. Later the sun will send its wrath, but right now there is a cool crisp breeze. I ponder the route I must travel, one which I have never traveled before. I head back inside but my focus remains a little cloudy.
The suitcases of Father Time get heavier as the moments pass. The mirror no longer portrays the young lad I fondly remember. In his place there stands a man who feels the effects of his many travels. Today those pains claim a victory, but it is my highest hope that the victory will be short lived. The battle horn has been sounded and I have called in reinforcements.
There comes a point in one’s life when you realize you are not invincible. An illness or an injury could be the leading cause of that confidence decline. Youth slips away and the view looking down the hill is even scarier than the view was climbing up the hill. With aging the wagon’s wheels don’t turn nearly as quickly as they use to. Worst yet, they might get stuck in a rut and not turn at all.
Recently I started having some leg pains. The “man” in me came out and I decided to tough it out. But the pain failed to go away and I did the “unmanly thing” and went and saw a doctor. The doctor sent me to a back specialist. Because of this great health care system we have, I could not get a MRI until I tried therapy. When the therapy only seemed to make it worse I was sent for the MRI. After the MRI, I made a return visit to the back doctor. It was determined that I needed surgery.
So here I sit waiting to leave for that surgery. The procedure is only 20 minutes. I have had out-patient surgery before and I have always done fine with it. This one is a little different. For the first time since I was born I will have to spend the night in the hospital. They want to observe me overnight. It is in that observation that my thoughts are pondering. If they have to observe you, then there must be a chance that “something can go wrong.” The odds are nothing will go wrong, but there is still that chance.
If the procedure is like most of the operations I have been under, they will probably give me something that causes me to fall into a deep sleep. After that drug wears off, and the surgery is over, my eyes will slowly open from that deep sleep. I find deep comfort in knowing that when my eyes open I will probably either be looking into the beautiful eyes of my lovely wife or into the warm glowing eyes of my Savior. Either way, I win.
His name was Thomas Randolph. He had come a very long way to visit the elderly man who was a friend of his grandfather. None of this would have been possible if it hadn’t been for a gentleman named Benjamin Rush. The young lad’s grandfather and the elderly man he was visiting had a deep friendship that started many years prior. Rush was good friends with both of the elderly gentlemen.
The two elderly men met a long time ago in a city that sat about half way between where each of them lived. They had a common cause and worked closely together with a group of other men. They were a little bit of a Laurel and Hardy team, though. One was tall and skinny. The other one was short and rather plump. One would have a little bit of a sense of humor, although that was a trait that he would never be known for. The other was more serious. One seemed to get along with everyone and the other seemed to ruffle feathers wherever he went. Yet they both shared a lot of common interest. They both loved farming, books, reading, writing and the common cause they were fighting for.
A little while later the two men were called to go to Europe and help to find support for the cause that meant so much to them. It was here their friendship really deepened. They did so many things together. The more time they spent together the more they liked each other. When one departed for another country, their friendship didn’t end but grew stronger through the letters they wrote each other. One of the gentlemen sent for his daughter to come live with him, but because it was such a long journey the young girl would have an extended stopover in the country the other one was staying in. The young girl would stay with this family for a while and they treated her like she was their own daughter.
When years past one of them would become President and the other would become the Vice President. It was here that their friendship was really tested. Despite the fact they had so much in common, the deep love they had for each other was severely challenged by their opposite political opinions. They started talking behind each other’s back and finally stopped talking to each other all together. Such a perfect relationship seemed to be destroyed because each considered their political views the only acceptable course.
He stood in front of the cave. Although the sunlight glared where he stood, inside the cave was very dark and spooky. He seemed to be shaking and there even appeared to be tears flowing down his cheek. Was he scared? The smell coming from the cave was awful, like death itself. Maybe that was the cause of the tears. The crowd watched and wondered if he was brave enough to enter. He just seemed to stand there, like he didn’t know what to do. The crowd was silent.
Then he yelled into the cave. There was no tremble in his voice. No, it was a voice of confidence. Everyone in the crowd had their eyes wide open now. Like a general barking orders to his soldiers, fear, if he had any, could not be found in his voice. There it was, one of the strongest commands in the Bible. Jesus called into the cave, “Lazarus, come forth!” Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, did not listen to death’s commands, but instead he walked out of the cave for all to see. Jesus had claimed another victory over death.
Benjamin Rush was good friends with both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Adams and Jefferson had been friends for such a long time since the days in Philadelphia and the Declaration of Independence. They travelled to Europe and served together in France, until Adams was called to go to England. Jefferson, whose wife had died, missed his daughter very much and he sent for her. After the voyage over the Atlantic she ended up in England. Jefferson asked Mr. and Mrs. Adams if they would mind taking care of her until she could travel to France to be with him. The Adams loved the girl like she was their own daughter. It wasn’t until their different political views, when Adams was President and Jefferson was Vice President, would conflict that their relationship fell apart. They would stop talking to each other.
Years after Jefferson had finished his terms as President, Benjamin Rush decided enough was enough of this silly feud. He talked to Adams and wrote Jefferson. Finally Adams would write to Jefferson and Jefferson would respond. It would start an exchange of many letters and the renewal of their friendship. The men were well up in age and unable to ever meet up again, but their letters stirred up the bond they formed many years before. Jefferson’s grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph was on his way to New England and Jefferson encouraged the young lad to stop in to see John Adams. Adams would write to Jefferson to tell him of the wonderful time he had with his grandson. That was to be the last letter exchanged by them as they both would die a short time later, on the very same day. They both died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the freedom document they both help write.
Sometimes in life we have those turning points that cause us to be reflective. Life is a pathway and just like most pathways, it has an end. When an illness or surgery scares us, or as we age and begin to close out our lives, like Adams and Jefferson, it’s comforting to know outside our cave stands the Son of God waiting with open arms, if only we allow Him to have a space in our hearts.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, Please be with me as I head into surgery. Please let everything go well and help my recovery. Thanks for those who You have surrounding me and the prayers and support they are supplying. Most of all, thank You for this life You have given me. You have blessed me so very much! Amen!
