what keeps me believing

Senior Sermon {exerpt}

Just as God has placed each part of the body where he wanted it, so has he placed our lives to coordinate with each other. The interactions we have with each other, even the minutest, are intentional and meaningful. The loving interactions, and especially the painful interactions.

I have lived with my grandmother for the last 10 months, and each day I watch her deteriorate at the hands of Alzheimer's. She is ripped of her memory and rational thought. I watch as she is no longer someone I can run and cry to, but more of a child that I have a difficult time keeping my patience with. Yet, I wondered, if God is in everyone, where is God in this situation. Where is God in my Grandmother, as her mind slowly fades away? She can forget the year, and where she lives, but what she has never forgotten is the most important thing of life. She knows how much she loves my family. Even if she cannot remember our names, she knows that she loves us. It is that piece of God that has let my mother continue to stress over the responsibility of her life. One late night, as I had fallen asleep on the couch I awoke because my Grandmother had fallen on me. She was groggy, and wandering in her new home, yet she fell because she had reached to give me a kiss on the cheek. She did not understand that it was four in the morning, she did not know where she was, or how she had fell, but God has kept within her a love for our family. Even though the next morning she had no recollection of our encounter, the whole time I led her to bed she told me how much she loved me. She told me how much my Grandfather loved me. God was allowing the most important part of her spirit to thank me.

Thank you God for keeping love, inside of her. God has carefully placed each part of the body exactly where he wants it. He has placed our hands, feet, eyes, ears nose, stomach, exactly so we function together. He has placed love in my Grandmother so to remind our family why we add what seems to many as an extra stress in our lives. Our Spirits are a part of the body of Christ.
We as God's Children depend on each other to function. If one part of our body hurts, every other part is involved. If one part of our body flourishes, ever other part celebrates with them. God has formed his church as his body and his apostles, prophets, teachers, healers, are what complete his body. As quoted from the message "For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own."

As it may seem that it is difficult to find that gift that God has blessed us with, it is when we are least expecting it that we shall find it. Until then, the relationships formed as we work together as one body of Christ are fastening by the immense power of love. The love I feel from my family and friends is what allows me to smile each day. It is the same love I will take with me to guide me for the rest of my life.

God has challenged us to see the beauty when it is less obvious. Despite its difficulty it is crucial to challenge yourself to take a breath of fresh air in the mist of chaos, and see the beauty and love in everything.