Wickedness Vanquished!

by: Adam Stout

Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease. For a time, I worked with people with this disease. They often forgot where they were. Sometimes they would ask, “What are we doing?” But most painfully of all, they would forget the names of their loved ones who came to visit. It was hard to watch. My pain was compounded by the fact that my great-grandmother had Alzheimer’s. My grandmother has it as well. And perhaps one day my parents or I will too.

In her poem In the Nursing Home, Jane Kenyon compares a woman to a horse grazing a pasture that becomes smaller when someone comes “every night to pull the fences in and in.” The horse “has stopped running wide loops . . . and drops her head to feed.” Kenyon ends with “Master, come with your light halter . . . come and bring her in.” Many times in the Bible, God’s people were worn down. It seemed wickedness was winning. At times, even the most faithful followers of God cry out:

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Ps. 10:1)

We are not told why. But in Malachi we are given a promise to which the Holy Spirit also testifies. It’s the promise that Jesus’ death and resurrection broke the chains of wickedness and that one day he will trample evil completely. Those penned in by diseases, infirmity, or age will be released. And we all will “go out leaping like calves from the stall.”