Lift up your heads, fling wide the portals

Adorned with joy

There are trials that await me when I make a trip to visit my Mom and my Aunt.  But I must say, their trials are more difficult than what I deal with while I am there.  Both of them confront daily the war that is old age – loss of vision, hearing, muscle, friends, energy, motivation.   For one whole day during my recent visit, my Mom felt too awful from nausea to get out of bed.

When I visit, it’s easy for me to hang my head and see only the sadness and difficulty my dear ones face.  It’s easy for me to rage at the illogical world that exists within the confines of the retirement home.  Yes, I do need that glass of wine at the end of a day spent there.

There is a decent piano in the common area right outside my Mom’s room.  I had brought my hymn books, and so spent about an hour playing and singing Advent hymns and Christmas carols.

“Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates!” says the Advent hymn.  I’m not a mighty gate, but I would do well to lift up my head and notice the moments of joy.  

Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates,

Behold, the King of glory waits;

The King of kings is drawing near;

The Savior of the world is here!

At first my Mom wasn’t singing, but then I started to play Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light, and Mom said, “Oh, that’s my favorite!”  And we were off and singing together – joy!  

More joy: some cousins came to visit for a few hours, and we had a blast reminiscing about our ancestors.

Even more joy: My brother brought a small Christmas tree, a small tinsel garland, and some ornaments from our childhood.  My aunt has vision problems, so my Mom looked over the ornaments and selected which ones to put on the tree.  My Mom has problems lifting her arms up, so my aunt put the ornaments on the tree.  It was so good for these sisters to have a purpose and a task to work on together.  The ornaments sparked fond memories of family times spent together. 

Fling wide the portals of your heart;

Make it a temple, set apart

From earthly use for heaven’s employ,

Adorned with prayer and love, and joy.

Visiting the retirement home is crazy-making, and parts of it this time were the usual craziness, but I lift up my head and give thanks to God that some of our visit was adorned with prayer, love, and joy.

Just to finish out my hymnal's version of the Advent hymn:

Redeemer, come! I open wide

My heart to Thee, here, Lord, abide.

Let me Thy inner presence feel;

Thy grace and love in me reveal.

This Advent hymn is one of my favorites, and not just because it is based on Psalm 24, which my father read at our wedding.  I like it because it's got instructions for me.  I've got to open the portals of my heart, I've got to see the joy, and then turn it around and, with God's help, reveal grace and love.    

(For those not familiar with the Advent hymn Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates, here it is, sung by a large choir with a really impressive organist.