I can still smell her Jergens lotion and feel the smooth texture of her hands as she held tightly to mine. It was hard to wash her hair because she didn’t want to let go of my hand. Due to the many strokes, communication was growing more and more difficult for us and more and more frustrating for my sweet grandmother. She couldn’t figure out how to walk over to the sink where the stool/walker my parents bought for her was waiting, so I backed her wheelchair into the kitchen.
It just wasn’t tall enough to reach the sink, so I covered the floor with towels and washed her hair. She kept reaching up to hold my hand. “Oh that feels so good, Linda. Linda, so good.”
But I’m Aimee. Linda is my mom; her daughter in love. What a compliment to be compared to my mom; the woman who wasn’t her daughter but loved my grandmother like she was her own mother.
I asked her how the water felt. “Is it too hot?” The gibberish returned, and I couldn’t understand anything. So I kept washing, praying I wasn’t hurting her.
That night as Grandmother tried to ask about one of my childhood friends, the gibberish prevented her. She pounded her fists on the recliner in frustration and said, “I pray her!” I understood immediately what she was saying; that she continues to pray for my friend, Lindsey. I told her, “I know you do.” And then, as if Jesus entered the living room where we tried to calm my precious grandmother’s frustration, she and I recited Romans 8:26 together.
Effortlessly.
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we out to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” - Romans 8:26 (NIV)
A few months later when she died, I kept thinking of the way The Holy Spirit spoke for us that day, and continues to do so, today.
I don’t know about you, but I am so tired of the hatefulness, arguing and fighting. When Terry and I pray, sometimes we both seem to be struggling for words. But even now, during the bickering, fighting and even the hate … I am confident The Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf.
So don’t stop praying. Even when you don’t have the words, trust The Holy Spirit to intercede.
We need Him more than ever.