lit from within

Our home visit took us winding up a gravel road to a tiny, old house with a beautiful view.  We were greeted at the door by Robert who led us to his beautiful wife sitting quietly in the kitchen.  June has advanced alzheimers.  She smiled blankly at us, but didn't say a word during our visit.


Robert told us about moving to the area 73 years ago.  His mother knew no one and was happy to find another new mom living next door.  For years she would bring her baby, Robert, to the side of the yard and talk over the fence with her neighbor.  And her neighbor brought her little girl, June.  While their moms talked, Robert and June would play with each other through the fence.  As they grew up together the teasing began.  "You and June are going to get married one day!"  "And we did."  Robert said simply. He worked through high school and then bought land across the road from where his parents and June's parents lived.  They built a tiny house that they could afford together and raised four children in it.  All four children live within three miles.  And still gather every Sunday for dinner after church.  For 55 years Robert and June gardened and canned and cooked and entertained together. 


 "Course June can't garden any more.  She doesn't have the strength. We haven't been able to go to church for the last 4 months."  Robert told us matter of factly.  I was struck by the premature loss.  After all these years to go from partner to complete caregiver.  I felt depressed as I looked into the cramped living room overcrowded with memories and a hospital bed.


"How are you holding up?" I asked, bracing for the normal tears, anger, loneliness.  "Me?  No complaints.  We have had  the most blessed life together.  Family, friends, church.  Being able to see the mountains and the trees every day. We are so lucky."


Really?  Poverty, struggle, age, sickness....and you have no complaints? 


That morning I had glanced through an US magazine that had detailed celebrities in trouble.  Gorgeous, rich, glamorous, living in mansions, flying to exotic locations, driving expensive cars, yet addicted, divorcing and in court.  Upgrading their faces and pumping up their images. The contrast between the article and the visit stunned me.


100 years ago German composer Richard Wagner wrote "Joy is not in things; it is in us." 


Today that hit me again, in a new way, that joy is a fire lit from within.   An old house and a deadly disease can't snuff it out.  And wealth and fame will never substitute.


Robert's warm contentment changed my pity to admiration and awe. What a rich, rich man.


I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  John 15:11