Last Sunday, I was taking Holy Communion to a parishioner who has significant mobility issues. This gentleman is known to fall at times.

He usually leaves his front door open for me to enter his home before I arrive on Sunday mornings. When I arrived at his house that day, the front door was locked, which concerned me. I wondered if he had fallen and could not get up.

I knocked on the door a few times, and I could hear the TV playing, but I did not hear him. My knock was unanswered, and the front door was not left opened. I tried several times to turn the doorknob, but it would not turn. I looked into the front room window of the home and could not see him.

I started to get alarmed, so I pounded very loudly on the door. I could hear the gentleman’s faint voice, but I did not know what he was saying, nor could I hear him shuffling toward the door to open it.

I turned the doorknob once more and found that, this time, it was unlocked. I entered the home and searched for the man, only to find that he had fallen in his bedroom and could not get up. I carefully helped him up. He was okay, but dizzy. He told me that he was alarmed as someone had been knocking loudly at his front door. When I told him it was me, he simply responded by saying that he had been feeling well that morning.

Some might say that he opened the door when I was looking in the window, and he did not notice me, and then shuffled to his room and fell. This could be. I wonder, though, whether God knew he was in a tough spot on the floor and somehow enabled the door to unlock when I pounded on it loudly.

All I know is that Jesus loves this man and enabled him to get help. For me, it was a humbling “God moment”. Jesus helped me find him. How much God must love each of us, especially those who are His most vulnerable! 

By: Deacon Tom Gryzbek