On Wednesday I must have received at least a dozen kisses from the cutest elderly people ever. We were at the local nursing home visiting the residents, and their hearts just brightened up my day. It was with them that I saw the simplest of life’s needs and joys. They didn’t need a well-planned show, fancy speech, or touching testimony. All they needed was human interest and affection—intimacy in its most basic form.
So many of them simply wanted someone to visit them, sit with them, and listen. Just listen. That’s it. It’s so simple but I would dare to say that they rarely receive any visitors and spend most of their days only interacting with the facility workers and fellow residents.
As I write this blog, I realize that on a daily basis, the elderly in Ukraine suffer from the same problem as millions of people around the world: lack of intimacy. They may go throughout their day surrounded by dozens or hundreds of people, but they get lost in the crowd and bustle of life and they’re forgotten. People forget to stop and ask how they are doing or simply smile at them. No one is there to listen to their story. No one is there to show them that their life and their story matters. One of the most basic human needs that God gave us is to know and be known by others. We just want to have someone who knows us at least a little and takes some interest in who we are, but it’s often one of the hardest desires to have fulfilled.
When we went to the nursing home, we offered the residents this interaction that made them feel human and valued. They thanked us many times for simply being there because many of them have no one. They shared their hobbies and small projects, and they would’ve talked to us for hours if they could have (and if we understood the language). It was all very simple needs that we fulfilled, but they deeply enjoyed our presence there because we listened. At both our coming and our going, they hugged and kissed us with great appreciation and gratitude because they saw that the Jesus in us loved them and that they mattered.
I left there feeling so full of appreciation for how God can use me to meet the small but significant needs of people. It was a blessing to be a blessing to them, and I want to challenge you: how many people do you walk by or interact with everyday that may be in desperate need of being seen? How many can you bless with a quick conversation or listening ear? Some are just waiting for you to show a little interest.
