One Baptism. Above all, through all, in all.
You prepare a table before me
In the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my dead with oil;
My cup overflows.
Psalm 23:5
With shaking hands dripping with lotion, Margaret caresses the skin of the man she loves. With each movement affirmed from her heart, she rubs the feet, legs, hands, arms and face whispering words of love.
As John lay dying, his body aches in deep pain from the crumbling of his bones. He tolerated touch when he was healthy, but in losing his battle to cancer he does not want to be touched at all. The pain is too much to bear. As a compromise with his wife’s need to hold and love him, they agree that she can carefully rub John’s feet with lotion at the end of each day – just enough for Margaret to feel close to his body and not so much to add to the agony of his dying.
In the moment after John dies, Margaret’s longing to hold and touch him to say good-bye becomes a sacred anointing to affirm love.
These actions echo the promises of John’s baptism fifty years before. While just an infant, a pastor with flowing robes, standing at a simple font holding a basin of water, anointed his forehead with scented oil saying, “You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.”
Now upon his death, Margaret stands alone in her own flowing robe at John’s bedside. She touches his body with scented lotion speaking words affirming love yet again, “You are indeed beloved.”
Breathprayer: Breathing in: Come to the waters…
Breathing out: … for newness of life.
Reflection: Touching your forehead in the sign of the cross, remember the blessings that overflow into your life.
This reflection is written for the online Lenten Devotions of the Southeast Iowa synod of the evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
www.seiasynod.org/lent