In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Rest is an important thing. Without rest, we make bad decisions, we are cranky and we mess up. Have you ever seen anything more cantankerous than a 2 year old who needs a nap? Or been in a checkout line with one behind you? Or on an airplane with one? We’ve all been there. And how many of us have been so tired we wished we could just behave like that 2 year old and get away with it? Yeah, me too!
Last year, this week was an exhausted blur. From Monday afternoon until early Friday morning, we basically sat by our father’s bedside, waiting. I hate waiting. This was excruciating. He was not aware of us, but he needed us. We turned him, my sister gave him medicine, we watched and listened to every sound he made. We took turns trying to sleep, but basically we all catnapped off and on. It was an awful, terrible time, There were moments of sweetness, and I think that we forged some bonds that will be forever, but all in all, it may be the worst week ever of my life.
Through it all, lots of people kept saying “whatever you need. . . “ They meant it, I know they did, but there was nothing we could do. We didn’t know what we needed or necessarily how to ask for what we did need. We took turns leaving for little bits of time- to the store, to get something to eat, to run errands. I think was mostly to get away. But here’s the thing. My friend Melissa lives not too far from where my daddy and Mrs. Betty lived. She, like others said, “whatever you need.” On Thursday of that week, Robyn and I were absolutely exhausted. Robyn kept switching roles all week from daughter to nurse. . . I was mad at the world, because that’s my first reaction to EVERYTHING. Neither of us had had decent sleep since Sunday night. So we got in the car and went to Melissa’s house. She opened the door, hugged me and said “Here’s my house. What do you need?” I put a load of clothes in her washer, Robyn took a shower and we both took a nap. Melissa gave us clean towels, clean clothes and REST. She turned off the lights, closed the door and we slept. I think we slept for about 2 1/2 hours. That was the most un-interrupted sleep we’d had since Sunday. We couldn’t hear the sounds of the oxygen machine, we couldn’t hear those awful sounds that Daddy would make sometimes in the night, and we both felt like for the first time in days that there wasn’t something else we should be doing. I don’t think I’ve needed sleep so badly or enjoyed it so much. After a while, we took our clean clothes and went back to Daddy’s house. Little did we know that would be our last sleep until our Daddy was in heaven, and that the night ahead would be FAR worse than the ones we’d already come through.
Without that rest at Melissa’s house, I don’t k now if I could have made it through the stuff that was coming later. She may have saved me!
Tonight, I’ll go to bed without my Daddy on earth for the 365th night. In some ways it seems like that nap at Melissa’s was just yesterday. Sometimes I think that’s the last, best sleep I’ve had. I know this: we’re supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus on this Earth. Melissa was for us that day – she gave us rest.
