Unity

07 March 2001 18:53

The following item has been forwarded by Tom Morales who prefaced the item with the following little note:

“I wrote it after reading the first two volumes of True Life in God. TLIG has renewed my feelings and commitment about unity. Not only amongst christians, not only amongst all humans, but unity of all creation to our creator and eternal father.”

My mother had a major stroke and a heart attack. I knew that her time on this earth was limited and so I brought her to a convalescent center two miles from our home. With the exception of one day, I spent every day with her from August until the day she died in January of 2000.

There was a nurse’s assistant there who my mom liked very much. When she came into the room, my mother brought her to my attention by saying, “Isn’t this woman beautiful! She looks just like Emma.” Emma was a very close friend of my mother. My mother would call her Emma every time she came into the room. For the purpose of this writing I will now refer to this woman as Emma (I never learned her name).

This friendly relationship with Emma & my mother continued for a few months. In the month of December my mother had another stroke. Emma was once again assigned to my mothers station. My mother no longer had coherent communication abilities. When Emma came into the room I continued my mothers friendliness towards her. However, I noticed a change in Emma’s reception towards me. She was very quiet and appeared to no longer be friendly.

I have finally learned after so many years, that because a person is not friendly with you does not necessarily mean that you are doing anything wrong or doing anything that would offend that person.

A week or so later, I was passing by the nurse’s station and saw Emma there. I had some food and thought it would be a nice gesture to offer her something to eat. She declined the offer, and I asked her if she was sure, because the food I was offering was excellent. She looked up at me (probably realizing that I was genuinely trying to be friendly) and said, “No thank you, I am fasting”. I said to her, “I understand”. She was wearing a scarf that day (it was the first time I ever saw her wear a scarf), so I asked her if she was Muslim? She told me that she was.

As the days passed on I would see Emma come into my moms room. My moms’ room was very Christian/Catholic. It had a Crucifix, rosary beads and prayer cards very visible to anyone who came in. I wanted to make Emma feel comfortable with us even though we were Catholic and she was Muslim. I did a very brief research on Islam and discovered that the Muslim religion believes in Jesus as a prophet and most importantly

that they believe in only one God. I thought to myself if we both
believe in the same God, and we truly love him, there should be no
reason why we cannot get along. Now how do I bridge the gap? As I
have learned, there is nothing greater in life than Love!

The next time Emma came into the room in addition to being friendly I complimented her on her scarf. In addition, each time she came in the room I would ask my mother, “Isn’t that a beautiful scarf”? My mother was not very coherent but would reply yes after looking at it. Then I came up with a thought one day. When Emma came into the room and was attending to my mother I began speaking to my mother. I was saying to her, “Mom, remember when you used to wear a scarf all of the time?”. I caught Emma’s attention. I continued the subject by reminding my mother of when they used to make crochet scarfs and wear them to church. I then looked at Emma and told her that Catholic women used to wear scarfs all of the time in church. But now they no longer have that tradition. I told her that I thought it was great that the Muslim religion still retained this tradition. I could tell by Emma’s eyes that her heart was warmed by her experiences with us. This warmth never ceased!

Unfortunately my mother contracted pneumonia. It was only a matter of days until she past away.

One day Emma came into the room and looked at my mother. Her eyes told me that she recognized that my mother was very close to dying. I looked out at the window and pointed to a bird feeder. I pointed out to her that we placed this feeder in front of my mothers room but no birds have come by to eat from it. I told her that my mother had a birdbath and that we brought it to our house. I told her how the whole family enjoys watching the birds bathe in the birdbath. She asked me where I lived. She had told me that she lived close to the convalescent center. There was a period of silence and then she walked towards me and said, “Probably the birds come to my house and eat from my birdfeeder and then they go to your house to drink”. I smiled at her and said, “We are all children of God aren’t we”. She smiled at me and said, “We are all children of God”. No other words were spoken. Speech was no longer necessary.