“Hey trouble maker!”
- Annie Butterfield
A Miracle in the Making
We have a new addition to our household! His name is Merlin. My daughter Annie has been searching for the
right dog to bring home for a long time.
She was thrilled when she finally found him and that’s when I had “the
conversation” with her.
The conversation goes something like this: “You know that this is your dog and you will
be responsible to take care of him.” I said.
“I know.” Was her reply.
As you know, saying you know, before you have experience
simply means you don’t have the experience to really know! Really knowing can only come from experience. And, responsibility-based relationship
experience also provides at least two intertwined life-changers.
Annie brought her little puppy home and I wondered how she
would feel about him when she had to begin performing her first life-changer,
personal service. That is, she has to
clean up his messes, take him out in the middle of the night, feed and groom
him, etc. In this instance, I was
thrilled as I was talking with her today and heard her say, “Isn’t he is the
cutest thing ever?” And, that leads me
the second life changer.
In less than two weeks Annie also said, “You’ll never break
my heart will you Merlin?” Responsibility-based relationship experience causes
us to experience the deepest kind of love a person can possess. You and I have seen many examples of this,
but one of the most touching example from my own life is that of Evan Hansen
and his wife.
Evan was a senior chemist at a large company on the East
Coast with a thriving career when his wife was diagnosed with a horrible,
debilitating disease. When they received
the news, he made the decision to quit his job and move to Richfield, UT so
their cost of living would be reduced to the point where he could spend the
bulk of his time caring for her. When
they arrived he was able to secure a job that would enable them to live humbly
and care for her at the same time. This job
turned into the avenue that would allow us to be introduced.
On multiple business-related lunch or dinner occasions I had
the great fortune to sit at the same table as Evan and his wife, where I
observed the exact same ritual between them.
Their food would arrive at the table and Evan would push his food aside
and scoot his chair up close to his sweetheart’s wheel chair so he could feed
her. You see, she no longer had the use
of her arms and hands and she could no longer speak. So, he would gently use her utensils to
painstakingly feed her one spoonful or forkful at a time until she was full. He would never eat his own food until she was
finished. It is the greatest
demonstration of devoted love I have ever witnessed!
Now I am witnessing the same type of miracle all over again
as I watch Annie take care of her little puppy.
Her love for him grows deeper with each act of service she provides for
him. It is a miracle in the making.
Every one of us can experience the joy that comes from
responsibility-based love. Would you
like to be a miracle in the making?
No comments:
Post a Comment