Daily Devotionals

Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life

Devotional: March 7th

Maggie and Doris were complete strangers. Maggie was a retired department store clerk while Doris was a middle aged single woman. Maggie had lost her husband to cancer two years prior and had married children with families while Doris had no family left as an only child whose parents were killed in a car wreck. They were even raised in communities that were totally dissimilar.

But here they were; roommates in a nursing care facility. Both women were stroke victims suffering partial permanent paralysis. But both were suffering from more than a stroke. Both women were placed in the facility; Maggie by her children and Doris by her doctor. They were more like two prisoners sharing a cell than two roommates. They felt trapped and alone. Then it happened.

Maggie walked past the facility's piano one day and sat down for a moment just to play a bass run with her left hand. She was frustrated that she could not fill in the melody with her paralyzed right hand. Doris heard her playing and sat down beside her on the bench. She recognized the song and began playing the melody chords with her good right hand. The two women finished the song amid the cheers of the other residnets who were listening.

Maggie and Doris had never talked before in their room. They both rarely even spoke to each other and liked it that way. Now they had something to talk about. They began to spend more time together than just their time in the room. More piano numbers followed and the two women became close friends and began to develop relationships with others in the facility.

"Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another." Romans 14:19 As a community of believers we have that faith in common. We must find those other things that draw us closer to one another and attract those around us who do not share what we have in Christ. The church is community and fellowship is it life's blood.