October 17, 2024

As more of you are knowing by now, I am recuperating from emergency knee surgery late last month. I sustained a fall while participating in a panel on LGBTQ+ Christianity at Mary Baldwin University and suffered a complete tear of the quadricep tendon in my right knee. I need to publicly thank here Rev. Dr. Katie Low, moderator of the Shenandoah Association, for driving my car and me, a surprisingly laid-back passenger -☺, from Staunton VA to my home in Baltimore. I also extend thanks to Rev. Sheresa Simpson-Rice, who ensured Rev. Katie’s care and return back to VA.  I am healing slowly but prayerfully surely, and believe God, and covet your prayers for, as full and as swift a recovery as possible.

Last week I went to my surgeon for my post operation follow-up appointment. While waiting for my ride home, I saw a mother and her son, who appeared to be between ten and twelve years old.  I could quickly tell that the boy, struggling both to breathe and walk, was holding on to her for dear life. They walked perhaps several feet, several times, then stopped for the boy to gather his strength. When they came to a stop in front of me, it was clear to the mother that her son could not go on. In addition, they faced a challenge of a climb. The hospital entrance which was their destination was a still about a 700-foot walk – uphill.

Of course, the pastor in me wanted to help, but I was hardly in position to do so being on a walker and wearing an immobilizer from my ankle to my waist. Yet moments later, I realized there was no need to, for my eyes beheld an amazing sight. The mother had hoisted her son on her on her back and she proceeded to carry him, piggyback, up that 700-foot walk, uphill, to that hospital entrance. It was a beautiful and moving sight to witness that mother’s love giving her the strength and determination to make sure that her son got to the place he needed to be.

That mother’s loving act reminded me of ways that God’s love is manifest in our lives.  It is that Love, expressed often through the acts of others, that enables us to get from the point “A’s” to the point “B’s” we need to get to in life. That certainly was the case with Revs. Katie and Sheresa who had designed a plan to get me home to Baltimore while I was in the hospital ER in Staunton.  I don’t know how I would have gotten here if it weren’t for them. The scene outside the hospital last week reminded me of one of my favorite accounts of Jesus’ miracles found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Jesus, teaching to a large crowd in Capernaum, was interrupted by four men who carried their paralyzed friend to Him for healing. They could not get inside because of the crowd, so they dug a hole in the roof and lowered their friend on a mat. Jesus healed the man not because of his faith, but because of the faith and loving determination of those friends that got him there. That was what I witnessed with that mother and her son outside the hospital. She exhibited a love which in the words of the Apostle Paul, that “never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance (1 Cor 13:7 New Living Translation).” That love for her son got him to the place where he would prayerfully find healing.

Based on what I saw last week, I fully believe that God’s love is often most present in times of uncertainty.  We have moments in our lives when we think we can’t go on. We have moments where we don’t know how we will go on. We have moments where we don’t know how we are going to get there from here. Yet it is precisely in those moments that God miraculously shows up, through the loving acts of others. It is that Love that finds a way and can, in the words of my ancestors, ‘make a way out of no way.’ And I unequivocally believe by faith that the power of God’s Love can and will carry us through, and will carry us to, the places we need to be.

Blessings,