Introduction: I am a proofreader and editor for writing projects.
I do interior design.
The following is an excerpt from a manuscript I authored for a friend from his "chicken-scratch" thoughts about his role as a caregiver tending to an ailing spouse:
Chapter Ten
He's Got the Whole World
Nursery rhymes, fairy tales, songs from childhood. Lyrics invoking their simplistic tales. We've heard them all. Filling our heads with truth and fable, how do we discern between the two when aged hearts face canyons of despair? Memory verses rehearsed in Sunday School somehow surface from the recesses of our minds. Recollections stacked on the shelf of time like storybooks at the bedside. The child-like faith of those by-gone days. We were going to have to dig deep to find it. How do we grab hold of such innocence while lying face down in a proverbial ditch on the side of the road of grown-up life?
Searching inquisitively, pushing past our youth, we sought answers. Writings of great authors caught our attention. Martin Luther once said, "I have held many things in my hands and lost them all, but all that I have placed in God's hands, I still have." What a statement.
To abandon our cares brings freedom. That was the key. Truth had unlocked the door. When I was finally able to let go of trying to fix it myself, it was then we began to witness change. We watched our lives be transformed. Going from the brim of barely living to a life of wealth. Health wealth, that is.
Doctors had given us 8 years max. Biting our nails as the deadline approached, we began to move on with life as the years passed. Exhale. Fifteen years later and we felt great. Smooth sailing. We were grateful. Sighs of relief coupled our forgotten worries with busy schedules. But our spiritual growth spurt was about to be challenged once again.
Out of nowhere, remission was no longer in the conversation. We reasoned away the nagging back pain with discussions of muscle strain from an all-night episode of flu-like symptoms. Let's just get some sleep. But an alarm of pain going off at one o'clock in the morning rang loudly and could not be ignored. Back to the hospital. Yep. Heart attack.
Another hurdle to overcome. And once again, we jumped it. Not even the slightest touch on the looming obstacle. We were running the track, and it felt great. To overcome. Once again. We knew it wasn't just our doing. Or even the well-titled doctors with lots of initials after their names. It was the child-like faith in a God that was bigger than us all.
He's got the whole world in His hands; He's got the whole world in His hands; He's got the whole world.
