Unwanted Memberships

There are fellowships none of us want to have memberships.  I encountered one this evening at a local hospital as a woman stood in the middle of a sliding glass door to keep it from shutting.  If it had shut another woman who was trying to get her car unloaded for her overnight stay with her husband would have been locked out and had to find a not so convenient entrance through the emergency room. The woman standing in the doorway made sure it did not happen.  Once all the stuff was inside the door, the two women introduced themselves. Both had husbands on the oncology floor of the hospital and both walked to the nearby elevator like old friends.   

While it may be true that some who suffer, or who have care giving thrust upon them, become bitter, experience has taught me that those who suffer are more likely to embrace other sufferers with family like warmth and care.  I have seen it over and over again as people go through tragedy, sickness, grief, and even horrific storm damage.  There are those moments when the barriers we hold up get broken down and we suddenly become like brothers and sisters.   

In some reading this evening, God was described as "the most passionate presence in the universe."  I have seen that passionate presence through the caring acts of the sufferers.  Some relive their pain to share with others who have experienced loss.  Some who have nothing but a few bags they carry with them reach inside one of those bags to share a morsel of leftover food.  Some who sit in chemo treatment rooms give encouragement to the newbies.  And, some keep doors from shutting so that for a moment life is made a little easier for the one who has no rest.