Rejuvenation of the Spirit

Please welcome our new guest contributor, Jerri Tuck – her bio follows at the bottom of this post…

Aunt Carrie was our family’s eternal optimist. She always seemed to see the best in everyone. We affectionately accused her of seeing the world through rose-colored glasses.

One evening we took Aunt Carrie with us to one of our prison Bible studies. As we were leaving the facility Aunt Carrie shook her finger and informed the guard, “Those are all good boys in there; every one of them!”

“Yes ma’am,” he rolled his eyes back in his head and responded with a slow, steady Southern drawl. “And some of them have been in five times now.” Charlie and I just looked at each other and grinned. True to form, Aunt Carrie chose, once again, to wear those rose-colored glasses.

At eighty-six Aunt Carrie had seen enough sadness and heartache to last several lifetimes. During the last years of her life she suffered terribly with bad vision due to a mistake made by a doctor’s assistant during an eye treatment. In spite of her pain and blurred vision she chose to see the best in everyone.

A few years back my daughter Dotty, who at that time was nursing, shared a story about one of her patients with me. The young man was full of optimism like Aunt Carrie. Milton was just twenty-one years old when a car accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. Both of his friends were killed instantly.

Instead of complaining about his new situation in life Milton jokingly asked Dotty to marry him over the phone. After being transferred out of ICU Dotty would call periodically to check on him. When he graduated from a feeding tube and was able to eat solid food Dotty took him his favorite food…burritos. His outlook and attitude were still positive, even when Dotty declined his proposal!

Milton, who was a Christian, looked at life around him through those rose-colored glasses. “Mom, he never complained or cried about his situation. He was amazing!” It’s not often that intensive care nurses see people with a positive attitude like Milton.

I love being around people like Aunt Carrie and Milton…people who see the best in everyone and take the punches life gives them and choose to see the good in their situation.

The Christian, whether he has a melancholic or sanguine temperament, can always see the brighter side by looking at things from God’s viewpoint. He knows “that everything’s gonna be all right!”

When you’re walking in the love of God you know that everything is working together for your good. You know that God has promised that He is for you, not against you. (Romans 8:28) He has assured the Christian that He has plans for their good, to give them a future and a hope.

I don’t mean to sound unrealistic. Tough things DO happen to Christians. Death, disease, accidents, separations are all part of the human experience, but we do not have to live in fear of these trials. We know that whatever situation we face, (including another operation for Charlie this week) we have a loving God who will walk through the fire with us.

In spite of Aunt Carrie’s blurred physical vision, she saw a clear picture of Jesus through her rose-colored glasses. She saw the good in the bad. She saw the light in the darkness. If she could talk with us now from her position in heaven I’m sure she would tell us to look for the handiwork of God in every person and in every situation.

Now, where did I put those glasses?

Just Jerri is the title of a weekly column that appears in several Georgia newspapers. Written by Jerri Tuck, the articles cover a wide range of subjects. In each column Jerri seeks to bring pertinent Biblical truths to light, with the prayer that each article will bring “inspiration, information and illumination”. You can find Jerri on Facebook by joining her group, Just Jerri or you can email her at jerrituck@aol.com