God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." God said, "See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

-Genesis 1:28-31 (NRSV)

I opened Grandma's blinds to get more light into the room. She never remembered to open them. Since moving into the dementia-care unit, she had become more and more forgetful. I was sad to see her slipping away.

One day we sat at her table, putting together a child's jigsaw puzzle. I had brought her flowers, and each time she looked up, she saw the flowers as if for the first time and asked me who brought them. When I saw her look up from the puzzle yet again, I got ready to quash my annoyance at the question I knew was coming. "Well, look what someone brought!" Grandma said with pleased surprise. Then she added, "What a beautiful day this is!"

I felt my breath catch in my throat. Grandma was remembering something I had forgotten: the beauty of what God has made. What I saw earlier as sad I now saw as amazing: a woman seeing things with fresh eyes, eyes that did not take for granted "the ordinary." It was as if I suddenly sensed God's abundance where I had expected only loss. Grandma gave me a glimpse of the God who dwells in those corners of life that we might call "empty," the God who moves in darkness as well as in the light, blessing us all.

Callie J. Smith (Indiana, USA)

Prayer Focus

Those with dementia-related illness