A Walker, A Couch, and the Psalms

It is interesting to me that God allowed a way for broken bodies and broken minds to heal. Two weeks has aged my dad considerably. He lost right around 25 pounds in the hospital. By the way, on the elevator the last day I saw a patient (he has the wrist bracelet on) and he was clinching a 3 Muskateers bar in each hand. Our eyes met and he saw me glance at the candy. He said, "They really shouldn't call what they are giving me food." That is all he needed to say. I suppose few great chefs end up in a hospital kitchen. Anyway, yesterday consisted of me going over and getting dad out of bed every 2 hours or so. We would shuffle a loop around the kitchen, sit for a while on the couch, eat a bite and then walk him back to bed. During the afternoon we sat on the couch together. I thought it would be good to try to give his mind some exercise as well. I asked a couple of simple math problems. He missed most of them and it wasn't much fun anyway. I don't think dad ever really loved math. But he has loved the Bible for over 50 years. I went over to my side of the house and got my Bible. I sat down and told him I would start with some familiar Psalms and I would read the first part of the verse and then I wanted him to finish it from memory. We went through Psalm 139, Psalm 103, Psalm 46, and then most of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). I prompted him a half a dozen times but other than that scripture poured out of him like water from a fountain. There can't be many sons who have had that experience. After each of the Psalms, he would close his eyes and say,"That's a good one." And so we spent the afternoon on the couch. Two pastors, but by the end it was hard to tell who the really healthy one was.