One of the favorite things our friends at Life Care Center love to do during worship is to lift up their hands in praise. Baptists, Catholics and Presbyterians are all joining in to lift those hands up in the name of Jesus. We who live in the comfort of our own homes, have a lot to learn about worship from them. We can just jump in our car to go to church but sometimes might rather sleep in or go to the beach. But they push only get around in wheelchairs, they eagerly push themselves up the hall and with big smiles on their faces join us for the Friday service. Why not join in with us? Let’s give God thanks for today and lift up your hands in His name!
Nursing Home Ministry
Before I Knew Him There
I did my best to visit but
Her memory was thin
And she kept asking if I knew
When she’d go home again
“What difference can I make?”
I asked and slumped down in my chair
“In just an hour or so she will
Not know that I was there”
So, I slipped out of the doorway
Hoping that perhaps I’d find
The answers to the questions
Parading through my mind
After I walked a mile the rain
Began to fall and I
Started looking for a shelter
Underneath a tree nearby
There clinging to its highest branch
Stood a cardinal and he
When he saw me started singing
In his cheery joyful glee
And His melodies brought memories
Like echoes from a well
Reminding me of promises
That I only knew too well
Of my Savior and His passion
And the cross He chose to bear
To pay the price so high and deep
Before I knew Him there
"… to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
Ephesians 3:18b-19 NIV
Before I Knew Him There
by Peter Caligiuri
Copyright © 2025 All rights reserved
I am dedicating this poem to the memory of my precious stepmom Amy, (pictured in the feature photo with my dad.) Amy battled Parkinson’s Disease for the last 6 years of her life and passed away in 2004. Though the scene in “Before I Knew Him There” is an imaginary composite, it is one that I see a bit of every week as I visit in the memory care wing of a local facility. I also dedicate this little poem to all those whose loved ones are passing through the veil of memory loss, or who are perhaps beginning that journey themselves.
Our Hope of Heaven
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides Thee.
Psalm 73:25 KJV
Hoping for heaven has sometimes been given a bad rap, because many of the old hymns and sermons of yesteryear focused exclusively on heavenly bliss, while ignoring the importance of our time on earth. But the Bible says that neither our greatest victories nor our worst failures can compare with what lies ahead for us in heaven. It reminds me of when our boys were teenagers. In shop class they made themselves wooden plaques with their names carved on them to hang over the doorways to their rooms. Though no one had any doubts as to whose room was whose, they simply felt they needed to stake out their own personal territory. In the same way God has staked out a territory in heaven for everyone who has put their hope in Jesus Christ. God has personally engraved our names over the doorways of our rooms. So don’t worry. There is nothing wrong with a joyful longing to be together forever with Jesus in the place He has prepared for us. We need to be able to say, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides Thee.” Then our hope of heaven can strengthen our hearts in the storms that come our way today and lighten our load so we can carry the burdens of others. This hope comes from God and will shine through any dark night and will light our paths all the way to our Heavenly home!
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