Mom's Shift

I get to sit quietly with Wayne this morning. He seems to be asleep right now and is sleeping comfortably and breathing easily. I was just reading Kennedy's post and I was thinking about our family conversation last night.

Last night Wayne began to be responsive again. I sat by him in the bed and held his hand and the boys sat around his bed. We talked and Wayne would squeeze his response, and I would pass it on. We really had a pretty good idea about what he was responding, even though it was a sparse form of communication. The reason is that we had hours and hours and years and years of previous conversations and we have history and intimacy. So a hand-squeeze can speak volumes. We knew exactly how his voice would sound if he spoke what his squeeze was meant to say. We could hear him without hearing him.

Someone else might have held Wayne's hand and felt his squeeze, but would not be able to "hear his voice" in that squeeze because the relationship is missing. The intimacy is missing. How valuable, in retrospect, are the many conversations over the years-- some long and intense, but most were conversations as we lived our lives, on the go, in the context of the moment. Now all woven together into a masterpiece of love.

I thought this morning about how God is always talking to us, always communicating in little ways. If we have history and intimacy with Him, if we have spent time carefully listening to Him, then we will be hearing from Him continually. Because of our intimacy with Him, we will experience the squeeze of His hand as our rests in His. We will feel His little nudges and see the twinkle in His eye. Volumes of communication can be expressed in a nano-second. We can hear His voice.