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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

fierce

For the past five days I've been at the hospital with my big sister.  She had major surgery.  The kind where they saw open your sternum, fix what needs fixing, and wire you back together.  Thankfully, her repair was textbook, and the big picture looks great.  But on her way to that big picture, she has suffered from some post-op complications that have left
her severely nauseous, dizzy, short of breath and altogether miserable.

As I watch her shift in her bed in discomfort, never complaining, but just desperately hoping to turn that proverbial corner; something stirs in me--grows in me---and finds it's way out.  It's a love that involves every part of me.  A love to which I must assign my hands and feet--because this love requires action.  It's a fierce love...something sisters share from cradle to grave, and it's not something I've ever had to manufacture or muster.

And as I refill her ice chips, try to straighten her pillow, rub her feet, or help her sit up, I know each action is simply an expression of that fierce love.  And though most of what I offer is lame and useless in all practicality, I do it because I love her, and I am resolutely compelled to comfort her in the only ways I know how.


So tonight as I think of my sis, and also of my God, I am thankful for much...

I am thankful that He has given me the capacity to fiercely love, and that I learned all about what this kind of love looks like from the best---the very girl healing in that hospital bed tonight.  

I am thankful to be fiercely loved by two big sisters I adore...who have gone to bat for me my whole life, and who will never stop seeing me as their baby sister---at least I hope not.

And I am thankful that I am loved by the very Author of  life itself, with the most Protective, Passionate, Perfect and Fiercest love of all...

1 comment:

Crib Tales said...

Beautifully written, as always. I hope your sister gets well very soon. I feel the same emotions toward my big and my little sisters. That's a bond you can't replicate. Sending peace to your family.