Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

• Ephesians 4:32

The Boilerplate

My wife started to write her thoughts down at one point in her life.  Some hints point to 2018 and 2019, after she had her open-heart surgery.  In spite of her trials and the atrial fibrillation (A-Fib) that required her to take blood thinners, this was before her major health decline.

Sometimes, she wrote a thought.  Other times, she wrote a Bible verse, and maybe her idea on that day.  Other times, it is a prayer, but I am going to take one entry at a time and try to write about it

Her comment

“And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgives you in Christ.”

• My wife’s next comment in this notebook

The Discussion

Again, my wife used the CSB (Christian Standard Bible) in quoting Ephesians 4:32.

This is the next to last verse in the last notebook.  And the last two verses describe her.

She was technically an Air Force medic before I knew her, but she worked surgery during the Vietnam War, piecing people back together, people who had been torn apart in the most ugly of ways.

And she never got to see them afterwards.  She made sure the doctor had what he needed to make the wounded man better, but her heart went out to each of them as the patient was wheeled into recovery and she sanitized the instruments and cleaned the operating theater for the next surgery.

She continued in this field and first quit work when we had been married for a little while.  She would return to the field occasionally as we moved around.  Her last surgical technician job was in the birth center of a hospital in the tri-cities area of Washington state.  She loved that job, but I soon lost mine.  I tried everything I could to stay in the area, but the perfect job came up in Pennsylvania.  What did she do for them?  She assisted the doctors in the birth center and if it was required to do a Caesarian, what they had done in the past was to work the expectant mother into the surgical wing as quickly as possible.  But with my wife there, she took over in converting the delivery room into a surgical room.  Since there was not much call for that type of delivery, at least in those days, her job became playing with the babies at 2:00am to get them to open their eyes and take their photograph for the records.  The nurses marveled at how she always had the babies with opened eyes, but they just positioned the baby and took a photograph.  My wife knew that the new mother, who was passed out on the bed, would like a nice photo instead of an antiseptic one.  Sure, my wife had fun playing with the newborns that would be gone from the hospital before they were 24 hours old.  But from her military experience, she did the best she could for the ones in her care and then passed them over to others.

God wants us to love others as much as we love ourselves, but I think my wife always loved others more.

Compassion is not observed often, but with the right attitude, compassion is easy.  Compassion is a natural function when you love others at least as much as yourself.  That makes compassion hard.  You must give of yourself even when you do not think you have anything left to give.  But when you love others more?  Compassion pours from your pores.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory