Fwd: Sleeping beauty

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Padrig Johnson" <padrigluc@googlemail.cm>
Date: Jul 13, 2013 4:56 AM
Subject: Sleeping beauty
To: "Mike Johnson>

I'm writing this post during my shift with Padi. I came on after he woke me up at 2am with a yelp. I'd been asleep since about 11pm. Ally the hero had just been moving him after changing him and the bed without him making a peep. Although Padi seems to be unconscious most of the time, if you try to turn him (e.g. to avoid pressure sores) he will call out and may actually speak. Yesterday morning he was saying 'OW!' at one touch or manoeuvre and when Ally comforted him with, 'it's OK Padi', he retorted 'it's NOT OK!' At that moment it seems like he's lucid but if you ask him anything at all it is very unlikely you'll get a response. But we can assume that he hears us and understands, which is a comfort. We can sing hymns, perhaps from the list he'd built up over the last years, or pray or just speak to him as if he can hear. If a visitor comes we'll take his hand and tell him who it is - they're unlikely to get more than a flicker of the eyelids. The peacefulness that generally prevails is also a comfort. He's our own 'sleeping beauty' and his story matches the fable in as much as our Prince of Peace, one of the Lord Jesus Christ's titles, will awaken him at last. I referred before to the raising of Jairus' daughter. En route to see her, Jesus is met by a messenger from Jairus' household. The girl had died, there was no hope or point in Jesus visit. But Jesus told Jairus, 'fear not, only believe'. On arrival at the home, Jesus was met by mourners who had already started wailing and said, 'why make ye this ado, and weep? The damsel is not dead but sleepeth' Mark 5:39. There is a sense in which any Christian's death is more aptly thought of in terms of sleep rather than utter destruction. There is an unhelpful form of materialism prevalent in our nation which denies the spiritual. But a Christian angle on material things places a high value on our bodies: whoever you are, you are made in the image of God. This same body, the Church has always taught, will rise again, following the Saviour, the 'Firstborn from the dead' (Col 1:18). It is either all true or it is not. By God's grace we believe it is true and this is a cause of much comfort and spectacular hope and expectation. The God who made all that you see around you (just using words) is well able to re-make it. This is, as Jesus says, the One whom you should fear (Matthew 10:28). Seek Him.

Sent from Padi's iPad