The great delight in showing compassion

Well, last night's nursing adventures required more than just a few smiles. I went into one very restless patient's room in the middle of the night when I heard her calling from the nursing station.
"I want my sinemet." She demanded, shaking all over and curled up in bed. "Withholding medications is a violation of my rights. I know what my rights are and I want my sinemet right now."
"Oh, I'm really sorry!" I responded. "Your sinemet's due early in the morning. But I can give you something else that will help. I can give you some ativan, which will help you sleep."
"I don't want ativan! I want my sinemet! The doctor wrote that I could have it whenever I wanted and this is a conspiracy to keep me stuck in this hospital! You go check the charts and then do the right thing."
A little surprised, I went back and checked the charts. It wasn't due til morning, so I prepared some ativan for her and brought it to her with a drink.
"Sorry, love, but the doctor ordered it for 7 in the morning. This will help, though."
"I don't want that! Get the hell out of my room! Don't even think about offering that to me!"
I tried to put a reassuring hand on her knee and she shoved me away, snarling. "Don't touch me!"
"What if I help you get more comfortable in bed? Would you like a drink?"
I held a drink out to her and she grabbed it from my hand, flinging it around the bed. I grabbed for it to keep it from soaking her and she grabbed my arms and started shrieking at me. "You thief! Get the hell away from me! you're all thieves, you good-for-nothing nurses! I'm going to report you for this. I'm going to make so much trouble for you that you'll wish you'd never come to work here."
I wrestled the drink away and scrambled to rescue the pill she'd sent flying.
She cursed and yelled at me while I tried to negotiate for several minutes and then I went out of the room, shaken and frustrated. I asked one of the other nurses to go try to help her, but from way down the hall I could hear the patient yelling racist slurs at the poor Chinese nurse.
We weren't about to call the doctor in the middle of the night to order a non-essential med, so we left her yelling in her room while we decided what to do. After a few minutes she'd calmed down and I tiptoed to the doorway, looking in to see her curled up, drifting off to sleep. I turned out the light quietly and went about some other duties, hoping she wouldn't wake up until 7.
A couple of hours later I went into her room and she was awake, and I sat down next to her.
"You don't look very comfortable at all, love. Can I help you get changed and straightened out?" I suspected that she could be in pain of some variety even though she wouldn't admit it. After a few minutes of negotiations, she agreed to let me change her.
Her bed was soaked through and where she'd been lying in her feces her skin was reddened and sore. No wonder she was upset! I cleaned her gently and changed all her linens, making her comfortable. I covered her in warm blankets and got her a drink. I brought her some medication and she agreed to take it, although she needed my help to hold her head while she swallowed. It must have taken 20 minutes to get that medication down, with her complaining the whole time, but I sat there patiently.
"You see how hard it is for me to swallow? You don't understand what it's like to have Parkinson's. And look at my legs. See how dry the skin is?"
"I think we have some lotion around here." I responded.
I found a bottle and began to gently massage her legs, suddenly feeling such deep compassion and love welling up towards her. She may have been unforgivably rude, but she was suffering, and I would forgive her a hundred times over if only she would let me help her. I looked up at her face and tears were beginning to pool in her eyes. She managed to swallow and then she said to me grudgingly, "thank you."
I think I felt a little like God feels at that moment. (I know that sounds funny, but I mean it in the best possible way!) The bible says that he has compassion on all he has made, despite what we've done. Each one of us, myself included, is a little like that woman- fighting against God until we decide to receive his grace and mercy. But the wonderful thing, is that it is his great delight to be merciful! I was so very happy to be able to be kind to her! And imagine how much more God delights to do good to us.