“Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.

For our heart is glad in Him, because we trust in His holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in You.”

As a bi-vocational pastor, my other role in life is to serve as a hospice chaplain for a local hospice that serves patients in their own homes, assisted living facilities, group homes and/or skilled nursing facilities. Just in the last seven to 10 years, the number of patients who are in their 90s and 100s has grown a lot. It seems that people are living longer, but many of them are so ready to go home. For many of our patients, their souls are waiting for the Lord to take them home and they say that frequently. I try to remind them God has been their help and shield and brought them this far in life, and it is always in his hands and is in his timing when our souls depart.

But like children waiting to open the Christmas gifts under the tree, they become impatient. Many have trusted in the Lord throughout their lives, and they struggle, often we struggle together, to understand why they are still here with diminished eyesight, hearing, mobility and in many cases dementia or Alzheimer’s has set in. It is then that I often sing the words of the song I sang for my mother, her last night in this life: “Jesus loves me, this I know; for the Bible tells me so” May your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us as we hope in you.

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Ray Bezanson

Extended Scripture: Psalms 32–34 (ESV)