Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 25-26.

Often when I read what is titled here as The Parable of the Bags of Gold, I worry that I am the servant who was given one bag.  This worry is not because I feel like I was not given many gifts by God, but because I fear I have not worked to develop and expand those gifts.  Today, I developed a new fear.  In Jesus’ metaphor of the sheep and goats, I have long comforted myself for times when I have down charitable work which meets the criteria which Jesus says for the sheep.  However, I noticed something about what He said to the goats.  He told them that whatever they did not do for the least of these they did not do for Him.  So, how many opportunities to do for Jesus in need have I overlooked?  I know there are time when I have seen people in need and acted to help them, but I also know that there have been times when I have seen people in need and done nothing.  I am not referring to those times when I could not do anything, only those times when I chose not to do something.  We each need to think about our lives and strive to serve God more.  We can never stop and say, “Well now I have done all that God has asked of me.  I can rest on my laurels.”  As long as we are on this earth there is more that we can do to serve God.

As an example of this I will tell the story about my Mom’s last day on earth.  My Mom spent her whole life serving others to the best of her ability.  However, in the last year of her life she developed dementia and could no longer do the various volunteer things which she loved.  As time went one, I cried out to God, “Why don’t you take her home? She is suffering and no longer able to do Your will.  She is suffering because she can no longer do You will.”  Then, came the day when it was obvious she only had hours left.  My siblings and I took turns sitting by her bedside to make sure that she would not be alone at the end (although, for much of that time more than one of us were present).  I was there at the afternoon shift change.  When the aid who had just come on duty came in and saw my Mom, I saw her face when she saw my Mom.  It was clear that she was deeply sorrowful that my Mom would not last the night.  I realized that, even in her dementia, my Mom had been a blessing to these workers who were caring for those who could not care for themselves.  Even in her dementia, my Mom served God to her last breath.  We, in our humanness, would have understood if she had become selfish of her comforts in the end, but my Mom, even when her mind stopped serving her, continued to serve God.  My Mom did not miss any opportunities to do for “one of the least of these”, even as she became one of them.  I have failed to truly follow her example.  I must seek to do better.  I must pray that God’s Spirit transform me so that I do better.  I want to do better.  Not because the doing will save me, but because of the blessings which my Mom experienced even at the end.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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