We are so thankful for our NHS key workers who put themselves at risk to keep us safe. We chatted to Lucy, a physiotherapist in a Vineyard church, who shared what it’s been like working on the frontline, and how God has met her in the middle of the pain and the suffering around her.
“As outpatient physiotherapists, our team has spent the past few weeks being ‘upskilled’ to do a number of different tasks in this time of redeployment. I volunteered to help with respiratory physio, which meant learning how to do ICU nursing and treating COVID chests. This is a major change from my normal everyday duties – treating shoulders, backs and ankles!
The preparation to do this work has been tough – learning how to monitor patients on ventilators, assess blood gasses, manage oxygen and respond to deteriorating patients. On the wards we have been treating COVID patient’s chests – getting them to perform deep breathing exercises to help with lung collapse and coughing to aid removal of secretions…in a nutshell, we’ve all felt very vulnerable and directly in the firing line of the viral load.
I had been struggling with my emotions for the past two weeks – bursting into tears every night, fighting fear and trying not to listen to the ever-rising death toll (and health professional numbers within that), and also feeling fearful that someone could die on my watch.
Then Jesus spoke to me.
He told me that ‘Lucy’ means light and that’s what he’s made me to be. He’s given me a role to hike (not walk) alongside my colleagues to be with them in this just as he is. I then saw a picture of Jesus stood in between me and a patient, and he was being coughed on. Jesus told me he was taking the full viral load for me and would protect me. I also saw a picture of a small bird egg. I asked him what it meant and he said ‘it’s fragile and it’s only when it breaks that you can see the bright yellow loveliness of the yolk inside.’
The next day I was walking with my husband and on the grass verge was a perfectly formed tiny bird’s egg. I praised God and picked it up, treasuring its perfection. The next day I rushed off to work, only to arrive home to find the egg on my bedside table, crushed… but it’s bright yellow loveliness shining through. I felt sad but overjoyed all at the same time.
I felt like the message, for me, through all of this was to not be afraid to cry out for help to Jesus. Our God understands our humanity and fragility, and that ‘breaking’ and being vulnerable before him is not a bad thing. Breaking can become a joyful celebration of his love and might. He made many of us with fragile shells designed to relate to people, to show his grace at work in us rather than our own power and self-sufficiency.”
We loved Lucy’s honesty in this story, and how God came to meet her in the midst of the everyday struggle. Each of us will have different stories in this season and how God is meeting us and helping us through this. Do you have a story about how God has met you in the middle of COVID-19? We’d love to hear it, send it to [email protected]
