The Deaconess devotion for today focused on the life of Florence Nightengale who trained in one of the original “mother houses” in Gerany, Kaiserwerth. She then dedicated her life to healing as she worked with soldiers in the Crimean War, advocating sanitary reform. The soldiers called her “Lady with a Lamp” after a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1857).
The wounded from the battle-plain,
In dreary hospitals of pain,
The cheerless corridors,
The cold and stony floors.
Lo! In the house of misery
A lady with a lamp I see
Pass through the glimmering gloom,
And flit from room to room.
And slow as in a dream of bliss,
The speechless sufferer turns to kiss
Her shadow as it falls
Upon the darkening walls.
As if a door in heaven shoud be
Opened, and then closed suddenly,
The vision came and went,
The light shone was spent.
Today we will pass by lives, suffering how we do not know, but let us pray that our shadows will reflect God as our first priority and his eternal love for those around us. May the light of God in you bless others today.
On the Way to Wonder 