What it means to be loved by your neighbors

This has been a week of illness in the Rockey family. My dad had successful surgery in Florida. My uncle in Massachusetts, who is my godfather, was placed on hospice in the past week. My grandchildren also have had some normal childhood illnesses.

The illness that has kept my primary attention, however, is the illness my wife, Kathy, is fighting. She came home from work April 26 with a children’s illness called hand, foot and mouth disease. Unfortunately, I have never seen Kathy so miserable. The rash has turned to blisters on her hands, feet, elbows and nose. She has experienced a terrible itching that has made it difficult to sleep. She suffered from a fever and chills. The swelling from the blisters has prevented Kathy from closing her hands so that it was even difficult to read a book for a time.

When Kathy can’t sew you know she’s sick! We have learned that when adults contract a children’s disease the symptoms are worse for the adult.

I have also learned again that when someone you love is ill or suffering you suffer along with him or her.

I didn’t have the itching, blisters or chills, but I wanted to take care of my wife. And I was not alone in wanting to care for Kathy. In church last Sunday, eight individuals offered help. We have had three meals delivered and one batch of “medicinal cinnamon rolls.” Kathy has received phone calls and wishes from many. On Wednesday night, after I had brought home some more care packages, Kathy said something that will stick with me, “I feel loved.”

That is actually God’s plan for his church. God wants us to know his love for us and then to share his love with someone else. In 2 Corinthians 1, it says:, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

According to what God is saying, the care Kathy received is more than just one person sharing concern for another. The care Kathy received from other Christians was a sharing of the compassion and comfort and love God has shown us in Jesus. In fact, God’s compassion and comfort for us gives us a reason and gives us resources to care for others. So, when the fellow children of God shared their care for Jesus, God was working through them to give this care.

It is one thing to read or hear that God loves us. It is another to be loved. This week my wife said “I feel loved” because others shared with Kathy the love God had given them.

Jonathan Rockey is pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Palmer. Contact him at jonrock53@mtaonline.net.

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