Day 6 - Week 6 - Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I attend a church that allows me to take communion to five lovely women in the Arbors, a nursing home here in Amarillo.  I'm always amazed at the faith that these women exhibit as they go through the days of this stage of their life, all of them being over 85 years old.   They share sweet smiles and exhibit such thankfulness for the effort that our church goes to to make sure that they are still included in fellowship and the ability to partake of the Lord's supper. 

When I first started taking Communion to them, I was bothered that sometimes a few were not as focused on the elements as I thought they should have been.  Some can easily be diverted from the seriousness of the sacrament, and may interject a comment like, "You have on the prettiest necklace" or "You have a beautiful smile"; and then one may look up and say as one told me today, "You should have been a preacher!"  (That made me smile even bigger!)  I told her that she should be a preacher with me...that we're all preachers, aren't we, ready to share God's grace with others?  

As I visit with them and we share the sweet fellowship of being Christian sisters (no matter how much age difference), I realize that if through our fellowship and our sharing of the familiar emblems of bread and wine, some remembrance of the gift of Christ that they have known throughout their lives is brought back to them, then it is a very sweet moment indeed.

For these women, in all likelihood, will see our Savior much sooner than I; and they share with me that they understand that as they leave this earth, all the years of their lives have been covered with the blood of Jesus ----the blood that we remember as we share the cup of communion.  When I talked with one this morning about Christ returning for us to take us home, she said, "that brings tears to my eyes" and she was talking about tears of happiness in readiness to see Jesus.  For each of these women know in their hearts that everything that their sin has earned has been exchanged for the wonderful gift of eternal life that God has promised to us in our verse this week. 

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The exchange has been made because of what Jesus did for us on the cross...and that's the precious gift that I got to celebrate with five beautiful women this morning.

You know when you were little and your parents let you open one gift before Christmas morning, just to appease your anxiousness...but that gift was always a small, less significant gift than the ones you would receive the next morning?   I think that's what God gives us sometimes in moments like I had this morning...small little gifts, just to keep us knowing that there's a greater gift in the waiting.  Isn't He a loving Father?