Straight Paths: Jesus is Here for Me

“Jesus is Here for Me”

Loren Hardin

The Ashland Beacon

     Lucy was in her sixties when I met her at Mercy Hospital. Her attending physician referred her to our Social Work Department for discharge planning.  Lucy had just been diagnosed with cancer which turned her world upside down.  She had been referred to the cancer center for chemotherapy and stated, “But I don’t have any way to get there”.  So, I volunteered to transport Lucy there and back home each visit, and she accepted.  

     Our trips to and from the cancer center afforded us the opportunity to get to know each other. As Lucy’s condition declined, she struggled to get in and out of her upstairs apartment.  Therefore, I helped her secure an apartment at “Old Market Square” and my brother, Tony, and I moved her with his old white van.  Lucy’s full-size bed was too large for her efficiency apartment.  I told my wife, Susie, over the dinner table that I needed to find Lucy a half bed. Then our daughter, Mandy, who was six at the time, spoke up and said, “Dad, Lucy can have my bed.  I can sleep on the floor”, which is what Mandy did for a while. 

     I eventually invited Lucy to church with my family and she accepted.  The church embraced Lucy and Lucy embraced the church. But it was a while before Lucy embraced Jesus as her Lord and savior.  Just so you know, there were no strong-arm tactics, no emotional blackmail, and no manipulation.  You see, God won’t accept less than our love, and love can only exist when there is absolute free will and mutual consent.

    Lucy attended church with my family and me for several months. She seemed to be doing well.  She was spry and feisty, outgoing, and getting out.  I can’t remember the reason for her hospitalization, but she was admitted to Southern Ohio Medical Center.  I visited her there and she seemed to be recovering well and was ready for discharge.  She sat up at the side of the bed as we talked, and I told her that I would pick her up for church Sunday morning. 

     I think you can understand why I was taken aback when Lucy’s daughter, Dee, called me that evening and informed me: “Loren, you can’t believe what just happened.  Mom just died.  I was at the hospital visiting her and she was sitting up on the side of the bed talking with me.  She seemed like she was doing good but then, suddenly, mom told me, ‘Well Dee, I have to go.  Jesus is here for me, and I have to leave.’  Then mom smiled, waved bye to me, fell back on the bed and then she was gone.” 

    We are never alone when we are “in Christ Jesus”. If you aren’t willing to take my word for it, then take His: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also…I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you,” (John, chapter15).

     Lucy’s departure from this world reminds me of a song by Carrie Underwood: “This is my temporary home; it’s not where I belong, windows and rooms that I’m passing through.  This is just a stop on the way to where I’m going.  I’m not afraid because I know, this is my temporary home,” (My Temporary Home).

     Loren Hardin was a social worker with Southern Ohio Medical Center-Hospice for twenty-seven years. He can be reached at 740-357-6091 or at lorenhardin53@gmail.com. You can order Loren's book, "Straight Paths: Insights for living from those who have finished the course” at Amazon.