Day 41

 

What's Love Got To Do With It?

or

Tossing Cookies

 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

 

1Corinthians 13:4

 

 

I want to tell you about a man named Herb Hodgemon. Herb, when I first met him, was an older man, a deacon in our church. Herb was a brilliant man, an accomplished engineer. He had several engineering patents from his work on the Alaska pipeline. He was a wealthy man. Herb had no children but had a wife he loved dearly. Late in her life his wife suffered from some disease that placed her in a wheelchair unable to speak and barely move any part of her body. Herb could have afforded a nursing home or the best in home care. But Herb loved his wife and did everything for her; he bathed her, fed her, dressed her - everything.

 

After Cathy had her heart transplant she was on a lot of medication, one of which was a high dose steroid that made it difficult for her to control her emotions. Cathy's  mom had stayed with us several weeks after the surgery but eventually had to go home, back to St. Louis to work. As we drove to the airport Cathy began to cry and become uncontrollably sad about her mom leaving. As we dropped her mom off, Cathy became so emotional she threw up on my shoes. Her mom offered to stay but I told her to go on because it was just the medicine and we would get through it somehow.

 

When we did get home Cathy was in such an emotional state I called the doctors. I was instructed to give her some Demerol (pain killer) to calm her down. So I got the Demerol out and injected it into her IV line and she drifted off to sleep. That evening as the meds wore off it was time to for her to take her anti-rejection drug. It smelled like a skunk when you opened the pill bottle and the only way she could keep it down was to eat something and swallow the pill with a glass of chocolate milk. So I made her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich which she ate and then she swallowed the pill as she drank her chocolate milk. While this was going on she was coming out of her Demerol haze and once again realizing that her mom had left. She got all upset again and this time when she vomited I was ready with a bucket. I gave her some more Demerol, got her another sandwich and more chocolate milk to take another pill because the first one was in the bucket.

 

As she drifted off in her drug induced haze she looked up at me and said, "Kiss me."

 

I thought, "No way dude. You just blew chunks!" And as I looked down into her expectant face I thought about Herb Hodgemon. I thought about my promise "for better or worse." And I determined if Herb Hodgemon could do better or worse, so could I. So I bent over and kissed her. Now lest you get the idea that I am "Jess the Wonder Spouse" I kissed her on the forehead, not on the lips.

 

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that love doesn't keep score. That means that sometimes, maybe even most of the time, one of you is going to give more than the other. Maybe it shouldn't be that way or maybe it can't be helped. The world screams out at us to look out for ourselves, take care of number1. God's word says don't keep score. And God sets the example for us in that he gave us his best, his Son, knowing that so many would reject him.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

 

• What are some things love is?
• What are some things love is not?
• What does love always do? And do you always do those things?