| A Prayer for Patients In Hospitals And Their Families
By Chris Eyte "Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.'
'Skin for skin!' Satan replied. 'A man will give all he has for his own life. But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.'
The Lord said to Satan, 'Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.'
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
His wife said to him, 'Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!'
He replied, 'You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?'
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said." - Job 2: 3-10 If you are a patient in a hospital reading this - you are not alone. God is with you. Perhaps it seems unfair to find yourself there. Hospitals are strange places - the sights and sounds are disturbing. I have had a lot of experience with them myself. Nurses chatting in the corridor, call buttons bleeping loudly, other patients shouting, the clicking of IV line machines, weird smells of cooked food and cleaning chemicals… moments of quiet interrupted by your curtain being called back by an assistant taking blood pressure, or groups of doctors doing the rounds. "This is no life, no life at all" - the words of an elderly man in a bed opposite me. It was twenty years ago, but I remember him well. His whispers slowly developed into a deep snoring sound and then an awful 'death rattle' as his life ebbed away. The night he died, he fell off the bed, and I had to call for help. Later, his breathing stopped. The next morning, the nurses drew my curtain across as they dealt with his remains. It was a macabre experience, eating my breakfast with a dead man opposite. I expect you have your own stories of staying in hospitals. Or perhaps your loved one is in hospital right now, and it's difficult working out how to support them. I have known that too - a close relative had a major heart operation, and I was with them day and night. It was exhausting. | 
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