I recently spent some time with my elderly mother. Over a year ago, she had to move to the Health Care section of the retirement community where she’s been living for over a decade. Mom has trouble walking and seeing. She is hardly unique. Everyone around her has one or more problems and is cared for by wonderful nurses and aides who do what they can to help.
Mom and the other residents were once able-bodied and strong, full of life and vigor, busy with family and career, but now can barely take one step without a walker, if that. As I spent time among them, one word continually came to mind: dependence.
When we are born, we are entirely dependent on our parents. If we live long enough, we return to being completely dependent on others. Between those two periods, we deceive ourselves into thinking we are independent. I don’t deny that we achieve many things with our own hands, but the reality is that we are never self-sufficient. The condition at the beginning and the end of a human life points to our continual state of dependence, most of all on God.
I don’t like to rely on others any more than anyone else. When I did a thesaurus search for “dependent,” I came across words such as “vulnerable, inferior, defenseless.” These are the notions we associate with dependence. But God doesn’t see it that way. Jesus was the most powerful man to walk the earth, yet He openly and repeatedly spoke of His dependence on the Father. He didn’t see it as a sign of weakness but as a mark of strength.
We can try to deny our dependence on God, but that’s a useless enterprise. The best solution is to embrace it, because only then can we fully take advantage of all the blessings and grace that God has in store for us.
Picture: Carol Schlorff
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I’m impressed, It’s a wonderful text about human infirmity, weakness and relationship with God in this time.