Don’t forget the benefits

Not that often can I recall what happened a year ago, but April 27, 2017, is one of those rare days I remember. My precious husband was recovering from knee replacement.  It was a beautiful morning and he announced to me he thought he could ride my bicycle.  I thought this was an excellent idea because it would help him recover from his surgery.  I went outside with him and watched as he wheeled around the property.  He did great; he did so great I said, “Let’s go bicycle shopping.”  I was excited just thinking about the fun we would have riding together.  We spent the day looking in bicycle stores trying to zero in on the perfect bicycle for him.  The Mosher’s are not impulse buyers.  We don’t mind overanalyzing expenditures; so being true to who we are, we said we will sleep on it and make our mind up after some careful consideration.  We arrived home around 6:30 that evening and my sweetheart said “I think I’ll ride your bike for a little while this evening.”  I wasn’t worried about him taking a ride because I had watched him earlier.  I sat down on the couch with a cup of green tea and channel surfed.  About 20 minutes had past and I thought “Hmm, my sweetheart should be back by now.  I guess he ran into someone in the neighborhood and is visiting.”  About that time my phone rang, and it was him.  I said are you ok?  He said no I’m not I’m lying in the street and I can’t move.  I ran out of the house down the long driveway where I spied him sprawled out in the middle of the street still half way on the bike.  He wasn’t overexaggerating when he told me he couldn’t move. He wanted so desperately to be able to sit up and he was begging me to help him.  Now I had used the words “dead weight”, but up until that time I had not had the dead weight experience.  My husband was very heavy, and I was on the ground maneuvering my knees under his back trying to get him in a sitting position.  I’m still not sure how I managed that.  I remember reaching around him to hold his hands.  I had great peace.  I said sweetheart let me pray.

I remember telling Jesus I was thankful that none of this caught him by surprise.

He knew before the day started that it would end this way.

He knew we would be lying in the street, in the dark, waiting for the volunteer fire department to arrive.

He knew we would wait for about an hour.

He knew I would be praying they didn’t run over us.

He knew the volunteer fire department would consist of very young men in pick up trucks with their dog.

He knew they would look at me like a deer in headlights and say, “what do you want us to do?”

He knew that I would feel disappointment and frustration that they had no medical training.

Two of the young men lifted my sweetheart into the seat of my car and I took off for the hospital.  I had suspected a stroke and I had been told when someone suffers a stroke they need medical attention within two hours.  I pulled up to the emergency room and looked at my watch.  It had been an hour and 40 minutes.  I had made it.  He was misdiagnosed.  They sent him home the next morning without him being able to walk.  He had used a walker and a physical therapist had helped him take some steps in the hospital.  I remember telling the doctor “I can’t take him home like this.  Something is not right.”  How does someone go from riding a bicycle to not being able to walk? I was told he just needed a follow-up appointment with his regular doctor if he didn’t improve.  We went home.  I tried to get him out of the car.  I put him against the wall of the garage and he slid down it.  I hate remembering the next events.  They are painful to recall.  We spent the next hour with him trying to crawl inside the house.  When I couldn’t get him off the floor into a chair I resorted to calling some neighbors.  They came right away and lifted him into a chair.  We were so thankful for their help.  We told them we just needed to rest a minute and then my husband was going to shower and go to bed for some rest.  They left and when my husband felt he had the strength to stand, we found he was back on the floor, unable to stand.  I called the volunteer fire department again.  I knew what to expect this time.  I took him to a different hospital where he was diagnosed as having had a stroke.

If you’re reading this you may be thinking, why would you want to rehearse all of this.  I mean this was a bad day.  I think of Psalm 103:2 that says, “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits”.  So here is a very short list of the benefits that were so gracefully shared with me a year ago.

I know that He loves us.

I know that He would never leave us.

I know that because I belong to Him, all these events have been filtered through His loving hands before they ever touched our lives.

I know that these things are for our good, His glory.

I know that he wasn’t trying to kill us, He’s just trying to refine us.

I know he would never cause pain without purpose.

I know he cares more about developing our character than he does our comfort.

I know He needed to teach me what it meant when I vowed “in sickness and in health”.

I know better how to comfort someone that finds themselves in similar circumstances.

I know that ultimately, he knows how to get us safely home.

Where would I have been and how could I have possibly endured if I didn’t have Jesus watching over us.  I’m so thankful for this beautiful husband of mine.  My life partner.  We’ve been married over 30 years and God was so good to give us each other.  He was so lavish to bless us with our son.  He was so loving to give me my precious little family.  I love my men.  God even lets me enjoy my husband’s other children and their sweet families from his previous marriage.  My sweetheart is still recovering.  The stroke compromised his balance.  One thing I love about my husband is he’s not a quitter.  He is still pushing forward, and Jesus is helping us.