Jesus - Safe, Tender, Extreme

Jesus - Safe, Tender, Extreme Copyright © 2006 by Adrian Plass Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Plass, Adrian. Jesus - safe, tender, extreme / Adrian Plass. p. cm. ISBN-10: 0-310-25784-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25784-4 1. Jesus Christ - Person and offices. 2. Spirituality - Anecdotes. 3. Plass, Adrian. I. Title. BT203.P53 2006 232 - dc22 2005016640 Adrian Plass asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other - except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. This edition printed on acid-free paper. Interior design by Beth Shagene Printed in the United States of America 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 - 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Safe in the Love of Jesus, Safe in the Body of Christ At this very moment, as I write, in the room at the end of the hall across from my study, someone is dying. Kathleen Rosa Ormerod is my wife's mother and my good friend. She is eighty-eight years old and has terminal cancer. Three weeks ago, one week before Christmas, we made the decision that Kathleen should leave the hospital and spend her remaining days, weeks, or months in our house. She is confi ned to bed, and what a bed it is, one of those special electric ones that you feel might even perform a backward somersault if you pressed its multitudinous buttons in the correct permutation. This superbed stands in the room that until now has functioned as our dining room. We want this to be a place for her to live in, not just the equivalent of a hospital ward. Fortunately, it is an ideal room for the purpose, bright, cosy, and enfolding, yet with a sense of being connected to the rest of the world. The windows and the glass doors are responsible for creating this effect. There are three windows, two large ones opening out towards the area at the front of the house, and another smaller one facing the backyard. In addition, there are two glass-panelled doors, the one directly in front of her giving a view of the hall and the stairs, and the other, diagonally to her right, looking through to the kitchen, which is where everything of any real importance has always happened in our home - talking, eating, sitting around, all those crucial things. She is effectively right at the centre of our family activity. She can see people arriving and leaving and moving from room to room and working in the kitchen and passing up and down the stairs. Her room is ablaze with fl owers, sent and delivered to the house by friends and family who know how much Bridget's mum has always loved growing things. Stoic though she is, it is a matter of great sadness to Kathleen that it will not be possible for her to see the fl owers growing in the garden of her own house this springtime. It breaks my heart for her. How sad it must be to feel that you have probably seen your last springtime. However, if you have no choice but to die and you cannot leave your bed, this is not the worst corner of the world in which to fi nd yourself. That is Kathleen's continually expressed point of view, and I agree with her. She deserves this comfort and consideration. She is a toiler of the old school, a person who has given to others all through her life. A hardworking, consistently obedient servant of the Lord for more than eight decades, she has merited every good and helpful thing that can be made available to her. We all pay a price though. For KathlPlass, Adrian is the author of 'Jesus - Safe, Tender, Extreme ', published 2006 under ISBN 9780310257844 and ISBN 0310257840.