The Couch

The Couch

I sit with my best friend and favorite kid on the couch.

We talk about the day, watch TV, eat dinner, sleep, snuggle, hold hands, and pray on the couch.

Our living room is central in the house, and it is where we spend a large majority of our time.
Our child often brings toys from the back room into the living room, and will create imaginative stories around us as we sit on the couch.  Kids shows, science fiction adventures, or food shows play on the TV.  Sometimes we listen to music through the TV.

When at home, the couch has been our place of comfort.  Wayne has slept sitting up on the couch, with a heating pad on his back, a comfortable position for him.  Prayer blankets and shawls surround and support him.  I sit next to him and hold his hand or rub his back.

When people visit, our seats surround the couch as we talk.

If the sun is shining, I open the curtains behind the couch, and let the warm sunshine in on us.
At night, our son sits on the couch with us and we say our prayers and give goodnight hugs and kisses.

Now, as I sit here with my husband in the Medical Intensive Care Unit, I think fondly of the couch.  The chairs here are uncomfortable, and my husband is showing that he is uncomfortable in the hospital bed.  It is hard to rest.  It does not feel like home here.  My husband is intubated so he cannot talk to me.  Yet, I still hold his hand, pray with him, and offer as much comfort as I can.  I am exhausted, and long to just snuggle and lean against him, finding that warm comfortable spot, like we have at home.

God is our central place of comfort too.  Resting in Him brings true comfort and peace.  I close my eyes, try to find some rest, and pray for rest that brings comfort, healing, and peace, like the kind that feels like home.


Note:  This blog post was written in the hospital.  My husband was recently admitted to intensive care, for dehydration and related complications, along with an extremely suppressed immune system, as well as testing positive for the flu.  Thank you for your prayers.

Reflection Verses:

Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree.  Genesis 18:4 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.  And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 NIV