Brotherly Love (Day 1 from Cleansing Thoughts)

   IT’S THE EVEV OF MY grandson’s first birthday, and as I look down into his sleeping face, I recall with great detail the evening he was born. Maybe it was because he was my first grandchild or perhaps it was the event that surrounded his birth that I remember so well.

   All the expectant grandparents were waiting with great anticipation for the announcement to be made that the baby had arrived. I smiled as I thought of the single tear I had seen falling from the corner of my daughter-in-law’s eyes as the pain intensified, yet she never uttered a word. The strength  and the determination she showed caused such a warm feeling of pride to rise up within me. I thought to myself, “It wouldn’t be long now.” As we waited, thoughts flooded my mind if what this newest arrival would bring into our lives. Suddenly, the door was opened, and we were told it was a boy and the new family was doing fine. I remember vividly the first time I saw this precious little face as his mother held him in her arms. And the baby I once held in mine, which seemed like only yesterday, now stood beside his wife and their newborn son. A flood of emotions came over me as my husband handed me this small bundle of joy, and my heart filled with love, just as it did when I held his father for the first time. After each of the grandparents held him, he was returned to the waiting arms of his mother.

   Then our oldest son walked into the room, and I witnessed the greatest show of love I had ever seen. My son took the baby from his mother’s arms and walked over and placed his newborn son into the arms of his brother. At that instant, I saw years of sibling rivalry melt away. In the blink of an eye, love, compassion, and forgiveness flooded the room. I could not mold back the tears as I saw the three of them standing there. One act of brotherly love had accomplished in an instant what no man could have ever done. I will never forget how one innocent baby, totally unaware, healed years if hurt and brought a family together. 

     My thoughts took me to the words Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah as He began His ministry, “The Spirit of the LORD us upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD” (Luke 4:21, NKJV).

   The town was not Nazareth, but Peru. I was not in the synagogue where Jesus spoke, but in a hospital room. Yet that day, I saw this scripture fulfilled in my sight for the presence of God was surely in this place.