The Room

When I was a teenager, there was no such thing as "hospice".  I worked at a facility for "terminally ill" patients, where I seemed to have a natural ease and peace with comforting and caring for the dying.  My mother often marveled that I was able to do so at such a young age.  I began working there at age 15 and continued until I graduated from college.

The "home" had private rooms, double rooms and large wards with up to eight patients in them.  My job was to bathe, feed, change, care for, and watch over them for an eight hour shift.  Early on, I became aware that there were always telltale physical signs in the days preceding someone's death, that told me their time was near. Yet, somehow, I knew, even before those physical signs became evident.  I don't know how I knew, but a great peace would wash over me whenever I was in the presence of a patient who was about to slip into eternity. I would sense that they were still in this world, but not of this world.  Whenever possible, I would hold them in my arms and sing to them in their last moments, as they stepped from this life into the next.  For me, it was an honor, a calling and an opportunity to physically feel the presence of God.

Whenever the staff knew that the time was very near for someone to leave this earth, we would draw the curtains around the patient so as to give them some privacy from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the ward.  I remember many times, after they passed away, I would step back to the foot of the bed.  I could see on one side of the curtain, was an adjoining patient who was very much alive and fighting to live and on the other side of the curtain, was a person who was no longer of this life...but at peace.  It was the same room, with the only thing separating life from death, this world from the next, was that curtain.

Even then, as young as I was, I understood that that's exactly how the Lord sees us.  The only thing separating us from Him is a thin curtain or as Scripture puts it, a "thin veil."  The Bible talks about the temple as having an outer temple and an inner Holy of Holies with only a thin veil between them.  Could it be that God sees all of His creation as being in just one room; our world and eternity, separated only by mere breaths.

One morning, not so long ago, a speaker at church talked about the thin veil that separates us from God.  He mentioned how we should be engaged in activities that bring us closest to the thinnest place of our separation from the Lord; things like prayer, worship, communion, and fellowship.  By participating in these types of practices, we are able to draw closer and closer to Him, catching dazzling glimpses of Him, moving towards the thinnest place in that veil.  And finally, when it comes time for us to draw our last breath, we simply move to the other side of the curtain, at peace, with Him.

Just think, dear heart, we can participate daily, in moving closer to Him.  We don't have to sit around, waiting for God to draw us in to His presence.  We have an active role to play in our relationship with Him.  I like to think that he's just on the other side of the curtain, in the same room, a breath or two away.  It brings me great peace and joy to know on the day my mother left this life, she merely slipped to the other side of the room, a breath away, and one day, I'll join her there!

From His lap,