We got “the call.” Not the call anyone wants, but baby boomers with aging parents will get or have gotten “the call.” My wife’s 92-year-old mother in a Lucedale, Miss., nursing home had stopped breathing and was not expected to live. Rushing from Gulf Shores, a two-hour trip, I called the home while my wife drove. I was told she would probably be gone before we arrived. Suffering from Alzheimer’s, she had stopped breathing before; this wasn’t the first “call.”
We now know it wouldn’t be the last. Several hours later, sitting in her small room waiting for the inevitable, I read the Scripture written on the dry-erase board facing her bed. My wife had written, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever” (1 Chron. 16:34). I had read that verse many times, but for some reason, God opened my eyes to something I had not seen before. God is good. I knew God was a good man, a good God, full of grace, etc. But at that moment, I knew God was good. Webster could write good/gud/noun (1) something conforming to the moral order of the universe (2) praiseworthy character (3) God.
The good that is in all of us is God — God is in all of us. Man knew no evil until he disobeyed God. I believe all the good in the world is God — the saved and the unsaved. At first, I struggled with that unsaved part, but then I realized there is no good without God and no God without good. Many people are good or do good deeds and are still not saved, but the good can only come from God. God instilled this in man from creation. That’s why it feels so good to do good.
Robert Donald
Gulf Shores, Ala.
Share with others: