The hospital called to say that my uncle was admitted overnight for observation, but he was stable, and everything looked ok.
My first thought, for a split second, was to let his brother and mother (my father and grandmother know). But they’re both gone now.
I knew that, of course, but my primary instinct was to call the people who knew him the best and loved him the most.
A certain sadness crept in when I realized that I was his next of kin and the emergency contact—there was no one else.
My wife, Sandi, and I went to see him that afternoon. His inner peace, positivity and gratefulness for his life’s blessings belied the outward appearance of his circumstances.
Blind since childhood, my uncle was the first in the family to graduate from college. He served in the U.S. Army’s electronic warfare command as a civilian employee.
His work took him across the country for training and conferences. Later in life he worked as an EEOC counselor for people with disabilities. He took care of my grandmother during her last years of life.
During our visit, he talked about prayer. He said that “prayer works” and you have to “keep praying.”
He also said, “I don’t consider myself blind. If I think I can do something—I just do it.”
That is certainly true. He navigated train stations, bus stations and airports for as long as I knew him.
How could he be so positive with the health problems he endured?
There was something about his inner life. His prayer life. He knew something of the intimacy of God that many people—even people in far better health--never get.
Living without physical sight seems to have granted him spiritual insights that the hymn writer, Edward Mote, captures beautifully:
When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.
-Edward Mote (1834)
The Biblical witness to God’s presence is as reassuring as it is clear:
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6
New International Version