Taking Care of Our Own

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith from a place of winter For the Years of Winter…

Taking Care Of Our Own…

First, I need to apologize to Ron Marsh for misspelling his name in the 3-2-11 CIW about Jesus as judge. You’d think someone my age would know how to spell “Ron.” [Actually, it was Marsh that gave me problems.]

In that same CIW, I confused some folks by referring to the Baptist Church in the town where I was the Methodist pastor as “our.” I was never a Baptist, but in a small town, everything is “ours”—our bank, our store, our mechanic, our Baptist or Catholic or Presbyterian Church—even if it’s not “ours.”

When I started on chemotherapy while we lived in that town, my nurse, Kim Wagler, [1] told me, “Stay away from crowds and sick people, because your immune system will be suppressed.” I said, “Half my job is crowds and the other half is sick people.”

But we tried. I did crowds and sick people only if they were part of my job. So we never did anything fun, and we got bored. Helen went to “our” store to rent a DVD, although I think it was probably a tape back then. Our daughters had told us “Pretty Woman” was a cute show. Helen plucked it off the shelf. Aunt Frances was working. When she saw the tape, she took Helen by the arm and led her back to the shelves. “Oh, my,” she said, “you’re the preacher’s wife, and this is a risqué film. You can’t be seen with something like that. I’ll pick out one for you that’s okay.”

Most people, especially those who have never lived in a small town, are horrified at that story. Not to worry. Helen is a woman of total self-confidence and total kindness. She said, “You can either think of a small town event like that as people intruding into your life, or people taking care of you. She was taking care of me.”

Later, when the teen girl was working, Helen rented “Pretty Woman.” Of course, we had to get someone else to take it back for us in case Aunt Frances was checking stuff back in! [We were taking care of her.]

In a small town, we take care of “ours.” Jesus said that the whole world is a small town.

JRMcF

1] I later officiated at Kim’s wedding when she added Ziner to the Wagler. I also officiated at the wedding of Becky Elliott, the head nurse in the cancer center. Helen said I was going to set a record for a cancer patient who does weddings for his nurses, but the others were already married.

{I also write the fictional “Periwinkle Chronicles” blog. One needs a rather strange sense of humor to enjoy it, but occasionally it is slightly funny. It is at http://periwinklechronicles.blogspot.com/}

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