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In 1999 the church I was serving designated a particular Sunday morning service for celebrating the lives of our shut-ins. Every effort was made to get them to the church that day. We highly encouraged their family to make arrangements but had volunteers step up where that didn’t work. After the service I received this note from one family (names have been changed). “Grandma thought it was to be some kind of coffee and cookies get together for the shut-ins and their families, thus she told us it was very important for us to be there by 9:00 AM.” (Worship started at 9:30). “Quite frankly, I was not overly enthused to have to arrive in Grand Rapids Saturday night in order to have coffee and cookies with the shut-ins at 9:00 AM Sunday. It’s a two hour drive from our home…Little did we know what a blessing God had in store for us! As it turned out, we were invited to God’s table at 9:30. We sat in the back row and took the chairs apart so that I sat on one side of Grandma’s wheelchair and my husband, Bob, her son, sat on her left…Through the years Grandma has irritated and offended me in many ways. She was probably unaware of it; it’s just the way she is. I would mentally forgive and forgive and forgive, then the next bark would come….more recently I just gave up and decided that since she doesn’t value me, I just wouldn’t particularly appreciate her. (However, I did …continue to treat her well.) Communion was served from the right…and passed to me. Grandma is unable to feed herself – so guess who was in line to feed her the body of our Lord? Now how can you do that with ill feelings in our heart? It was truly a blessing….It was a poignant moment…Our thanks to (the church) and praise and thanks to God who knew ahead of time what he had in store for us.

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