The Blessing of Friends

Luke 5:17-19
"One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus."

First, a quick update on Tammy. She finished her first batch of chemotherapy this morning. We found out after we posted yesterday that she'll have more starting tomorrow, just a different kind. Today she had the rabbit protein. After the first chemo weakens the existing bone marrow, the rabbit protein goes in and "kicks butt" on the remaining bone marrow, according to the nurse. All this is in preparation for the transplant next Wednesday.

She had a spike in her temperature today, but that is very normal. She was feeling some chills and nausea. Hopefully that won't last too long.

This morning, several friends from church came to the house to help us get ready for Tammy to come home. They moved one freezer that no longer works, moved another one to a place we could use it, vacuumed the whole house with a heavy-duty vacuum cleaner (don't worry Sam; we won't tell Melissa how deft you are with the vacuum), replaced the kitchen sick that had grown some mold, cleaned out the fireplace and completely cleaned out the garage. I tried to thank them, but they considered it a privilege to help. It's not the first time many of them had helped. They insisted that I let them know when we need more help.

It's humbling to accept help like this, because I want to provide our family's needs. But I was reminded that my attention needs to be on Tammy, helping her get through this. If our friends can help us with some of the projects around the house, I can spend more time at the hospital. Just like the man in the story above, whose friends lowered him through a hole in the roof to see Jesus, my friends helped me do things I couldn't do on my own.

Whose mat are you lowering? You might not recognize it, but when you help a friend, you are bringing them closer to Jesus. Thanks, friends.