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Themes: "Relationship to God, New Birth, Sinner is Dead The Emergency Room had been busy all evening. Now there was a lull and we welcomed the quietness. One patient was waiting for lab results and another was waiting for his own family doctor to come to see him. One of the nurses asked if I would deliver a sweatshirt to the Intensive Care Unit. The patient had been admitted earlier that evening and the garment had been left behind. I took the sweatshirt and headed for the elevator.
The ward clerk in the Intensive Care Unit told me which room and which bed the patient was in; the one in the far left corner. There were four beds in each room. His wife was just getting ready to leave so I gave her the sweatshirt.
When I turned to leave I saw someone I knew. He was standing beside one of the other beds. The patient on the bed was lying very still - not moving at all. The patient was his wife.
The man looked very tired and sad. His shoulders sagged, He moved his head from side to side slowly as if he couldn't believe what had happened.
He did not see me. The buzzes, swishes and beeps of the monitors filled the room. The nurses walked in and out rapidly. He was not paying attention to anything around him. He was only interested in his wife.
As I stood and watched, he bent over her and started talking. He talked softly into her ear. From the stillness of her body I realized that she was in a coma. She could not respond. She could not answer. He held her hand. He touched her face. She did not know that he was there. She could not see him. She could not hear him. She could not talk to him.
He turned his head a little and I caught his words. "Cindy can you hear me? Please talk to me Cindy. Please just talk to me, oh please, Cindy hear me!"
His words touched me. I had stumbled on to something very private; something very precious. It was time for me to leave. I went out the door quietly. He never knew that I witnessed his anxiety and his love. He did not know that I heard his pleadings.
I thought about him all the way back down to the Emergency Room. He wanted his wife to wake up. He wanted to talk to her; and for her to talk to him. He was desperately pleading with her. He got no response; no answer. How terrible it must be to want an answer and get none. I wondered how long she had been in a coma; how many times he had come to talk to her; how many times he had tried to let her know that he was there and that he loved her.
Two days later the wife died. She never did wake up; even long enough to talk to her husband again. His pleadings went unanswered.
God is trying to reach us. We were designed to live with Him and enjoy him. Instead, sin has made us dead to God. We are no longer on speaking terms with Him. Sadly, too often we never do respond to his calls. Some people remain out of touch with heaven for their lives - and eternity.
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Simon Wallace
