The Elevator

Hospitals can be triggering.

They hold some of life’s most beautiful beginnings… and some of the hardest goodbyes. Sometimes just floors apart.

Recently I stepped onto an elevator in the hospital. Standing beside me was a little boy who could barely contain his excitement.

“I’m going to meet my new sister!” he said with the biggest smile.

His eyes were bright and his whole little body seemed to bounce with anticipation. We talked for a moment about the baby. What her name was. Whether he was ready to be a big brother.

The doors opened.

He skipped down the hallway toward one room…
and I continued on to the floor below.

He was going to meet his new sister.

I was going to say goodbye to a dear friend who would soon be taken off life support.

Two completely different moments of life… happening just a floor away.

One door opening to a beginning.
Another quietly closing on an ending.

As I walked down that hall, I kept thinking about that little boy. His joy. His innocence. The way he couldn’t wait to meet someone he had never even seen before.

And it reminded me of something important.

We never really know what someone is walking toward when we pass them in a hallway… or stand beside them in an elevator.

Someone might be heading toward the happiest moment of their life.

Someone else might be heading toward the hardest goodbye they’ve ever faced.

And sometimes those two stories are happening side by side.

That little boy had no idea that the person standing next to him was walking toward a tough goodbye. But his sweet excitement carried a quiet reminder with it.

Even in places where grief lives… life is still unfolding.

Babies are being born.
Families are celebrating.
Hope is still showing up in unexpected places.

That little moment in the elevator stayed with me the rest of the day.

It reminded me how sacred these ordinary encounters can be.

Because sometimes God lets you stand in the space between a beginning and an ending… just long enough to remember how precious every moment in between really is.

And how important it is to love people well while we still can.