On a busy morning, a nurse in the crowded emergency room seated an elderly
gentleman who had come to have stitches removed from his hand. He said, ‘I’m
in a hurry, nurse. I have an appointment in an hour.’ As the line of patients
ahead of him moved slowly he kept looking anxiously at his watch. Knowing
he would never make his appointment, the nurse led him to an examination room,
checked his vital signs and evaluated the condition of his wound. Seeing it
was well healed, she consulted with one of the doctors and got clearance to
remove his sutures and re-dress his wound. She asked, ‘Are you hurrying to
another doctor’s appointment?’ He said, ‘No, I’m on my way to have breakfast
with my wife at the nursing home.’ She asked about his wife’s health and
learned she was a victim of Alzheimer’s disease. ‘Will she be upset if you are
late?’ The old man told her she hadn’t recognized him in five years.
Surprised, the nurse asked, ‘And you still go to see her every morning,
although she doesn’t know who you are?’ The old man smiled, patted her hand
and replied, ‘Oh, yes. She doesn’t know who I am, but I still know who she
is!’
Loving ‘for better or for worse’ means being committed to each other in
every season and circumstance of life. It’s how Christ loves us: ‘Having
loved His own, He loved them to the end.’ And it is why He said, ‘A new
command I give you, As I have loved you, so you must love one another’
(John 13:34 [4] NIV).
