It almost never happens. In fact, I can’t ever remember a time when it’s happened before. But it happened this weekend: my wife, Lily and I got sick at the same time. Usually, one of us is there for the other one. Well, maybe her more than me.

Normally if Lily is sick, I stay clear to protect myself; I don’t want to get too close.  And it works most of the time. Sometimes however, as she is getting better, that’s when I’ll come down with it.

Saturday we were both in bed, pretty much all day. We had extra blankets and layers of clothing on. I’m not sure what to call our sickness. There was a time way back, when I would offer a name for it.  Back then, if you were achy, coughing, hot and cold at the same time, we called that a cold. If you felt like you were going to throw up, it was the flu.

Now, it seems we call everything the flu. That’s not very descriptive, if you ask me. I remember when, if someone told you they had the flu, you got a mental image of them with a bucket close by.

Now, however, we are just plain confused when someone says, “I had the flu.” You ask, “What kind of flu? – the kind that you feel like throwing up, or the blowing-your-noise-and-have-a-temperature kind?” Come on, just give them two different names; one’s the flu and the other is a cold. Lily and I had the cold variety, got the picture?

As the day progressed, I started thinking that our kids should be here to look after us.  After all, we certainly did that for them for many years. Sadly, Karlie lives two time zones away and Mike, well, he’d stayed over at a friend’s the night before.

We were sick and on our own. So Lily had to make lunch for us. Now, just so you don’t get the idea I did nothing all day, I made my own dinner. It was a frozen pizza, but I had to go downstairs twice, the second time for the instructions. That used way too much energy for me that day!

All day I couldn’t shake this thought that our kids should be here for us. Karlie even phoned us while she was out shopping, wanting advice on choosing a soup stock to buy. It was like she was taunting us with visions of chicken vegetable soup. But there was no way she could beam it over to us.

I looked outside and it was snowing. There was no way we could shovel the snow, but Mike could do it . . . if he was home!

At that point, we both felt kind of sad and lonely, Lily more that me, ‘cause I had hockey to watch all afternoon and evening. Where were those kids when you needed them?

Here’s the thing: Just like our kids were not close by when we were both sick, if we have allowed or caused some distance in our relationship with God to exist, we certainly won’t feel like He is close by when we need Him. I need to make sure I stay close to God when I’m doing well, so that when I’m not, I know He is there to help.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What kinds of things can cause distance in your relationship with God? Leave your comment below.