Regarding Henry

Just south of Ruthton, MN the plains lift a bit in what’s known at Buffalo Ridge.  That ridge extends SE to NW for about 40 or 50 miles.  Currently the entire ridge is covered with electrical generating windmills, silently watching over the ways of farmers.  It was on this ridge a couple miles from town that Henry (my sister’s husband) was raised during the depression.  I have to think that farming in those pre subsidized and  labor intensive days was just plain hard.  Wind, hail or drought affected the outcome of crops.  Drifting snow and sub zero temperatures were a threat to life itself in the winter.  Air conditioning was a function of wind coming through cracks in the house.  The times, the situation and location all seem to be a formula for a humorless life that capitulates to the fates.  Remarkably, Henry came out of those experiences with a strong faith in God and an equally strong sense of humor.  Both of these characteristics underscored his 50 years of blessed ministry.  Now at 82, he spends the better part of each day in a nursing home recliner, his voice for the most part silenced by a succession of strokes.  Spending time with him this weekend, Psalm 34:19 came to mind: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous…..”  That phrase seemed to sum up his current condition and I was hard pressed to see any relevance to the second thought in that verse – “… but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”  That is until I watched my sister, who makes the daily 90 mile trip to Brookings and back, spend the daylight hours with him, conversing, encouraging and anticipating his needs.  She is the hands and feet of Jesus.  She is, at least in part, his deliverance.  Pray for them both in this time of transition and change.