When Death Comes Knocking

While I slept in the house up the road, the deep night passing, death came knocking. Separated by a garden, barbed wire, and a trek through murky grasses, my parent's house stretches from mine. It was 12:30 am this past Thursday, after my quiet reading time when rest captured me in blissful sleep. It also was shortly after 12:30am, when the house next door (my parent's), was full awake as my Dad was providing rescue breathing on my Mom, who stopped. Breathing. Alone, he sat on the floor where she had collapsed in respiratory arrest.

In the moments before the collapse, he did manage to call 911. Changing clothes, he prepared to dress since he's the on-call respiratory Therapist at our local hospital. It'd be his job to assist her distress at the E.R., then it happened. She fell when her lungs failed. In quick succession she was down. It'd be a long, long while before the ambulance would make it's way to our busy country road. Our local hospital the size of some large clinics elsewhere. And me, I slept, my phone silently beside me. Ringer turned off.

Before the ambulance found its way here, once again neighbors (volunteers called 'first responders') were the ones who showed up to provide assistance. My Dad attempting to breathe for his wife, my Mom. Perhaps one of those first responders was the neighbor two houses down, who showed up when our meadow caught fire ("Licking the Flame When Meadows Burn").

Eventually the ambulance arrived and carted my unconscious Mom across those muddy grasses. My Dad followed, to do his 'job'. After she was stabilized on a ventilator, out she went by helicopter. A larger city over an hour away received her to one of their larger facilities with the staff and equipment needed to continue her care.

A few days have passed and she now recovers in the care of the hospital. Saved. Luck had nothing to do with it. Nor coincendence. My knowledgeable Dad Divinely appointed by God to be available and awake in her greatest need. But there is a need that's greater than the very breath we breathe. There's a word for it. They call Him, Jesus.

Every day I try to breathe Him in, the very breath I crave. Some days I fail. Yet He is able to save me. HE took the air I needed and nailed it to a tree. Though flesh wraps me in that sinful state, HIS Spirit sets me free. Though my air is sucked out by life, He breathes for me. Though my body wastes away, HE gave His, so HE could have me.

We are all ONE breath away from eternity. Our flesh like grass, it withers and fades. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. We have today, this hour, this minute, this second. Youth isn't a life insurance policy from death. Death comes knocking for that unquenchable grave. Forever may find us today. May we be found in HIM.


"8..'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”(that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Romans 10:8-10


"6 The voice said, “Cry out!”
And he said, “What shall I cry?”

“ All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah 40:6-8



"15 The leech has two daughters— Give and Give! There are three things that are never satisfied, Four never say, “Enough!”:
16 The grave,
The barren womb,
The earth that is not satisfied with water—
And the fire never says, “Enough!” Proverbs 30:15

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Ps. I plan to also write about the wonderful CHRISTians who've been His hands, feet, and ears for us. On a side note, I did ask for permission to blog my parent's story here. My Dad and I have been at her side many times since this happened. It seems I may have more time with her. Above all else, I want us to be by HIS side when forever finds each of us.

Pss. I thought of you Brittany Janae during this. I don't know why one is spared and another taken. You are not over-looken by the One who has never taken His eyes off you. I look forward to meeting your Dad through your eyes.