When Life Hangs in the Balance

Today, Jared's Dad passed away.  On Saturday night we received that dreaded phone call....the one that everyone will receive at some point...and just by the sound of the voice on the other end, you know that something Life-Altering has happened, and so you wait and during each long pause you try to build up the courage to TAKE IT...and then you crumble.

Jared's dad was in an accident.  He was found badly wounded, lying in the middle of a forest road, with his horse standing as sentinel.  Nobody knows what happened, where it happened, or when it happened.  Now we will never know.  He was life-lighted to IHC in Murry, UT and placed in intensive care for head and brain trauma.  The next 3 days would prove to be even more life-altering.

If death is ANYTHING, I have found it to be the ultimate teacher.....Tonight I would like to tell you what I have learned this week....

Waiting Rooms (in situations like these) are Hallowed Ground.  They are where families struggle through something hard and ugly and come through it TOGETHER.  The outcome is not always what you would have chosen, but those who lived through the process learn to love those who were willing to live through it with them.     REAL family ties are created in hospital waiting rooms.

When death is near, emotions are as well, and we find ourselves doing things we would not normally do...
Like raiding the closest neighborhood block party when the smell of steak overwhelmingly overpowers the thought of going back to the waiting room to the same Costco cookies that have been there to greet you for the last 24 hours.  (It was one thing to raid the party.....but did they not have enough steak to bring back and share with the rest of us :)  I will never look at Costco cookies the same again.

There are two dimensions in every hospital room.  The first attacks you as you enter the door to see a loved one buried under tubes and machines........this physical dimension is overloaded with charts, beeps, numbers (oh the numbers), scans, monitors....And as you quietly let it all sink in, the second dimension works its way into the picture, it probably starts with silent pleading prayers, transforms into your "gut feelings,"  and ends with peace.....peace that drowns out the numbers, the beeps, the tests.  

When death is near, there are those who would like to be in the "waiting room", but it is simply not an option, so you appoint a messenger of sorts.  Someone who will relay the details. It is best to appoint a WOMAN to this job.  When men attempt to do it....It starts with very few details and ends with even fewer,  but we love Trent :)  because he is always willing to make the CONTACT.

When life hangs in the balance heaven, ever so softly, touches the earth.  And while heaven and earth play their game of tug of war, each trying to tip the scale, there will come a MOMENT.  And in this one moment it becomes absolutely clear that a wise Father in Heaven is holding the scales.  He sees more, He knows more, He will make the final call, and it will be the right one.  

I love Jared's parents, THEY GAVE ME JARED.  I am eternally indebted to them for their willingness to raise a righteous family, who would one day become my own. Tonight Death has taught me once again, that Eternity, Together Forever, is our only option.  The Savior our only Hope.  And FAMILY our greatest ANCHOR.