Finding Freedom

Mom is shouting, “I want to go home! I’m going to kill you. Mama, where are you mama? I want to go home!” She tries to get up and leave, as we sit on the edge of the bed and I help her get dressed after her bath. She is desperate to leave this place where she has lived for more than fifty years. She longs to go home.

When we are finished I say, “You can go find Daddy now. Go out the door and find Daddy.” Mom goes around the bed away from the door. I direct her back and she moves the clothes hanging on the hook on the door back and forth and taps the wood of the door. “Where’s the door?” She says.
“That’s it, Mom. Just open it. Open the door. ”

She finds the knob and almost opens the door, it starts to move towards her, but then she closes it again. She jiggles the door back and forth and then walks off to the other side of the room.

I open the door and guide her out. She walks down the hall way a bit and then comes back to the room she was so desperate to leave minutes ago, and sits back down on the bed.

I think how similar to being stuck in old or sinful habits and feeling desperate to leave. The door is right there. God’s power and healing grace is available. We have everything we need. The knob is in the hand, but we just don’t quite open the door.

Someone points us in the right direction. We get a few minutes, days or months of freedom and then, for some reason, long for prison again and go back to old ways.

Finally, I get Mom up and hold her hand and walk with her down the hall. Dad says, “Come sit by me.” And Mom cuddles warm and safe next to the one who loves her so.

Maybe that’s why God gives us each other. When we are stuck in old patterns or the prison of sinful habits, sometimes we need a caring hand to show us the way and lead us closer to the One who loves us so.

And as we stay close to Him we will know His warmth and the security and the strength He gives. And we can find freedom from old ways as we trust and follow Him.