Immersing myself in the chaplaincy program was a shift for me. Historically I have given my energy to long term relationships, like supporting marriages, and motherhood. But chaplaincy hovers in that narrow window between when I walked into a patient's room, and then walked out half an hour later. How could God use such a fleeting moment for His purposes? 

 

He did, by the way. The shared minutes with people whose names I forget, that I will never see again, impacted me. Rather deeply. It is also possible that they remember me, but that is not mine to know. They had bigger concerns on their minds, by definition, than the appearance of one more face in a string of strangers. 

 

The whole arrangement leaves me wondering. Maybe God is more efficient than I thought. I remember learning that colostrum, which is that nearly magical liquid that arrives briefly when a baby is born, has remarkable qualities. A newborn only gets a few teaspoons of it, and yet it brings with it immunity, antioxidants, nutrients, and the ability to rid the baby's gut of meconium. And those are only the things we have figured out. 

 

Fortunately for the baby, knowing the details has no impact on its worth. Which resonates with how it felt to visit patients.