Being a servant

 

I wanted to minister to my friend, and the only way I knew how was to serve her.  I cleaned my sister's house after her newborn son passed away, and I knew cleaning house was not high on my friend's priority list. 

I went over to her house twice within the last week to see if I could persuade her to let me clean her house.  She did not know I was coming either time.  As I was pulling into her driveway the first time I went to her house, another car was also pulling in.  It was the middle school pastor and his family.  When I got to her back door, her husband greeted us.  I asked him if I was intruding on anything.  He told me they were going to see their son’s truck and get his stuff out of it.  The pastor was going with them and his wife and kids were staying at their house to watch over Grandmother.

I told my friend that I wanted to minister to her, and I brought my million dollar vacuum to clean their house.  So while they were gone, I began vacuuming their house.  I asked her before she left if she wanted me to do her son’s room.  She said it was okay.  When I got to her son’s room, I thought about the words on the song “We Are Standing on Holy Ground.”  Not that it was Holy ground, but I was trying to be respectful while being in his room.  I can’t really put it into words of how I was feeling.  On his desk were a lot of thing….his name tag from work, a graduation card, and graduation pictures.

They came back from seeing his truck.  She said it was hard, but both she and her husband commented that seeing the truck helped them to understand things better.  The door frame and windshield had bucked in near the headrest which caused their son’s fatal head and neck injuries.

I wanted to clean more, but I needed to go help Aunt June.  I told her to call me.  I knew she probably wouldn’t.  This thought got reconfirmed when I read a lady’s blog this week.  The lady wrote on her blog things not to say to someone who has lost a loved one.  This lady knew this all too well because she also lost her son.  She didn’t want people to say to call if they needed anything.  What she meant by this statement was instead of leaving a message saying that they were here, for them to actually show up to the door and be here.  She was saying to follow up with our words.