He is love, you know.

I reviewed the report with him which first consisted of a full typed page of medical diagnosis his chart bears and moved on to the new bad news for today.  We had the hard conversation.  I hated it.  Every. Second.  When I was finished explaining his options and possible repercussions of each, he looked up and smiled at me.  He said that he could tell I had done that before and I did it very well.  Then he asked with the same belly laugh he says most things to me, "Does your family eat pears?" "We sure do." "Well, I've got some out here that are just going to rot.  Let's go get you some."  With that, we simply got up from the table, he picked up a plastic bag with a brown paper bag inside that he obviously had prepared beside the back door, and we headed out to pick pears.  Have I mentioned that I love Home Health?  We talked about gardening and he told me several stories of he and his wife of 64 years and their love of this yard and garden.  She placed this bench here.  He build this shed here.  Their children used to have a volleyball net here.

It was nice.  When we came back in the back door, I asked if he had any questions before I left him to think on his decisions that had to be made.  He said he didn't, but he did have some other questions. He then asked me the same three questions he asked at the previous visits: "Do you know who Jesus is?" "Are you a Christian?" "How do you know?"  I gladly answered all three and then just had to ask: "Why the pears?"  That's when he said something that has resonated with me for the rest of today:

"I have found that when you love on people, they are more likely to listen to you about Jesus.  He is love, you know.  I used to be able to do a lot more.  I used to care for the widow ladies and go raise money for folks whose house has burned down or whatever.  Now I have pears, so I give pears."

I loved it.  I hugged him as tight as I dare hug a sweet, frail 94-year old widower.  Thank you God for your sweet encouragement through such a sweet servant.  I am praying for your blessings on his life today and that I finish my race as well as he is.