Meet Alice and Art

I first met them three or four years ago, while serving as Interim Pastor at Salem Covenant Church. I had heard that Alice had taken sick and was soon to be hospitalized. So I phoned their home to inquire if I might visit them, and was greeted by Art's voice. "Today would not be a good day," he said. "I'll be gone all afternoon." I asked him to take my number and call me back when it would be convenient and was startled to hear him say, "I can't. I'm blind."

Here was a woman whose long pilgrimage through illness has led now to chemo treatments for cancer. And a loving husband whose own condition, I later discovered, not only included blindness but a serious heart condition as well. Every visit I have made to the Blaisdell home since then, not to mention Unity Hospital, has left me praising God for these two.

Blaisdell seems an appropriate name for them, almost parabolic in the sound of it. Blazing their way together through life's dell, helpless in one way healthwise, but for the most part stable in spirit--even cheerful. People of faith, hope, and love. Uncomplaining in adversity. Wanting our prayers, of course, and glad for our presence alongside. Yet not clutching straws, realistic and in their own way vibrant.

We laughed last night about that first phone call, and in the glow of evening talked openly about all that lies ahead--for her and for him. Turning to Scripture I read from the Psalms, Matthew, and Romans, clearly food for their souls. You could see it in their eyes. I prayed--asking God to sustain their spirits and give them hope. Then Alice took over, wanting to tell me about of her recent trip with her daughters--over 3,000 miles by car no less--to extended family in far away Idaho and all that meant to her. In her condition family wanted her to fly but she insisted she wanted an auto trip. When it was time to go, I asked them to rise, gathered them close, and with my hands on their heads pronounced the benediction.

As I drove off, Art was standing at the door, buoyed in spirit, I believe, as if longing for more. And I was in tears of gratitude for the privilege God has given me just to visit such saints in light, whose lives and spirits in spite of their condition are such a powerful witness to the things in life that remain and matter for Christians.

Surely God himself has blest and kept Alice and Art. Clearly he is still making his face to shine upon them and be gracious to them. Yet not only so. Time and again, through them, he is also lifting up the light of his countenance on me.