In a previous post, I mentioned my visit to the local nursing home, which happens on an alternating basis with my supervisor. One of us heads over on Thursday afternoons to lead what is optimistically called a “Bible Study” – really, it is unlike any other Bible Study I have either attended or led. I go in with nothing planned beyond a general sense of which book of the Bible I will read from that day, and sometimes that changes depending on the whims of my “students” or their “teacher.”
It is really more of an opportunity for them simply to hear the Word of God read to them. Sometimes, I add more commentary. Sometimes, the words speak for themselves and all of us seem to be lost in the beauty of the words – as we were last week as I read (again) the words of the beloved Psalm 23 (at the request of a person in the group).
I like to end with the Lord’s Prayer, said together. It gives them a grounding point, and it gives us some commonality as Christian people. Some of them say nothing throughout the entire time together, and even seem to sleep through it. But when we begin the Lord’s Prayer, some inner place is roused and they often say the words with me.
More than the reading, discussion, and prayer, though, this time together gives them a chance to be cared for by someone other than the employees – someone from the “outside” – someone who represents the Church universal.
It hit me last week as I was leaving that these people have not always been the way they are now. At some point, they lived lives very different than their lives now – they were children themselves, went to school, worked, married, had children and grandchildren, and probably in the span of their lives cared for many others. Maybe they nursed sick children or took care of a dying parent or spouse – whatever the case, surely they were caretakers themselves at some point.
And so, now it is OUR turn to care for them. Now it is OUR turn to be the caretakers – not because we know them or are related to them, but because in caring for the Other, we care for Jesus, too.
