For a second Sunday in a roll, Teckla has given me a double portion of the Lord. Where I go to church, Vineyard Community Church, communion is done by people walking to the front and taking the bread and juice and then returning to their seats. Teckla and I walk up together and have communion together at our seats while the worship team sings softly. It is not very liturgical but works well. It has become a moment I treasure each week.
The last two Sundays, however, there has been an awkward moment when we get back to our seats and I see Teckla has taken two cups and two pieces of bread. She always hands me the extra one. Rather than trying to explain that I already have both, I simply take communion twice with a grateful and broken heart.
My heart is broken because Teckla’s dementia has made such a simple thing difficult. Sometimes she holds the little cup and doesn’t remember what to do. I whisper, “This body of Christ broken for you. This the blood of Christ shed for you” We muddle through communion together in our seats. And are blessed.
I am grateful because all these years I have been married to a godly wife whose heart is to give. If a good wife is a gift from God, in Teckla I have received a double portion of goodness. Her sweetness shines through her clouds of cognitive impairment. Again and again, like this morning, God’s grace has flowed from Teckla to me.
I may have been playing the role of priest to Teckla this morning, but the love and grace of Christ flowed from Teckla to me. Dementia is terrible and hard in many ways, but not beyond the beauty and love of Christ. It is just like Jesus to make flowers of grace bloom in the compost of our pain and loss.
