Vigil

Monday morning my youngest sister called to say that our sister, Eunice, had a bad night. She has been suffering for at least 13 years with a degenerative neurological disease which has left her unable to walk or stand alone or turn over in bed or feed herself. She has been in Hospice care for over a year. The Hospice people are wonderful with her. It is so great to have them bathe and dress her each morning. Now it is time for the next step. That step will be the one that she takes when she leaves this world and steps into the next.

I have been privileged to have able to spend time with Eunice during the last year. We have read and talked and reminisced. Her two best friends, Bette and Elaine, have gone before her and she often mentioned how much she missed them. She will soon be there too along with her husband, David. She has often talked about how she wishes that she just wouldn’t wake in the morning. I hope that her wish comes true. Much as I will miss her, I long for her to be free from her disease. She always says that she wishes that she could run! When I was there in January, Patti, the hospice chaplain was visiting. Eunice expressed the desire to run and we spent a little time looking up some verses about running in the Bible. In Isaiah 40:31 we read:

But those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary
they will walk and not be faint.

Another verse that was meaningful was a quote from the Apostle Paul in Second Timothy 4:6. Paul says:

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me to also to all who have longed for his appearance.

What a wonderful mental image I have of Eunice, well and whole and running to be with the Lord, wearing her crown. What a day of rejoicing that will be.

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