Jesus is in the ICU

 I have spent the better half of the last 4 days in either the Intensive Care Unit or the ICU waiting room with my Dad. As I look around the room, I see the deepest hurt, pain, worry, and sadness imaginable. The family across the room is visiting their patriarch as his life hangs in the balance moment to moment; the entire clan gathers to cry and share stories. The lady sitting across from me has been sobbing off and on all day, when I stopped to pray with her she said her Mother died 2 months ago, her step mother died 3 weeks ago, her husband is a disabled veteran who has been denied any benefits and is battling colon cancer all while she sits in this waiting room being told the tumors in her fathers kidneys are inoperable and they have no idea how to proceed. The family to my left waits out a final diagnosis on their elderly mothers cancer, only to find out that the prognosis is bleak. My own family gathers worried about Dad and how his future may look with a severely damaged heart and the only kidney he has left dysfunctional.

 During the morning visiting hours, in a moment of divine intersection, I looked up from my Dads bedside to catch a moment in time I'll never forget. There was an elderly man across the unit, who to that moment had no visitors, his condition is obviously critical and the "crash cart" had gone in out more times than I could count. I ached in my spirit for the man; as my Mom and I gathered around my Dad, talking to him, wiping his brow, holding his hand and no one gathered at that mans bedside! No one mourned his illness, no one wiped his brow and it seemed no one cared. As I tried to field the innumerable texts, calls, and emails I had been receiving, as we had a strategy laid out to filter the many guests via relational priority and the whole time this poor guy lay in a bed suffering all alone. I wept and thanked God for his faithful attention to our family. I prayed and thanked the Lord for the network of people in my life that care and then it struck me to pray for the man in that room to have someone come to his side. We left visiting time to return to our "fort" we had built in the waiting area when we encountered a new lady that hadn't been a part of our band of suffering brothers in 4 days! She was a bit lost and frazzled and no idea where to go, she was sure that she had missed visiting hours and was noticeably upset. She had been working double shifts and had taken her lunch hour to run see her Dad but couldn't find it. She was sure that this was where they told her to go. It only took a few moments to find out that she was there to see that man who was all-alone! I was so thrilled to walk her down to the ICU doors and watch her run in and run to the bedside to love on her Dad. I was so thankful, the man no longer was suffering alone when it dawned on me: He was never alone! Just like we were serving my Dad, the Lord has been serving this man. The Lord was in that room just like in my Dads. Jesus was at all times attending to the needs of those in that room and waiting room. He wiped tears and hugged necks. He reassured and comforted. For the first time in a week, I KNEW Jesus was in the ICU!