Visiting the Vampire

I've never cared much for vampire stories (sorry to all you Twilight fans out there), but there is one vampire movie that I will stop and watch anytime it's on television ... Interview with a Vampire starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. It's a movie not for the faint of heart, for sure, but it's a film laden with lessons about life and death, love and hate, compassion and cruelty. Each time I watch the movie, I am always struck by both the beginning and the ending of the story. The story begins in the then Spanish Louisiana in 1791, when the protagonist Louis (Brad Pitt) was 24 and suffering from a death wish after the death of his wife in childbirth along with the baby. The vampire Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise) offers him a chance to be reborn as a vampire, and he accepts. Lestat turns Louis and teaches him how to live as a vampire. The story returns full circle in its ending with Lestat offering the dying reporter Malloy (who is the interviewer telling the story, hence the name of the film) "the choice he never had" to become a vampire and live forever. There's a ton of story that happens between the beginning and the end, but those opening and closing scenes are among the most powerful to me ... the first about a man wanting to die, and the last about a man wanting to live.

This morning, I was a wobbly mess when my friend arrived to drive me to the doctor's office for my much-hated and dreaded fasting blood work. I haven't had the tests for several months ... I think my doctor didn't want to push me off the deep end by insisting that I have them done as frequently as I had before. I suppose, however, that my extended lapse in testing and the need to know what's going on inside my body caused her to decide that the possibility of me jumping off a cliff was worth the risk. Diabetes and fasting is just not a good combination for me; when my blood sugar gets really low, I shake and sway ... and believe it or not ... cry a lot, say things I shouldn't and am quite a grump. I have a hard time remembering what I say or do, and I always worry that I'll say something revealing or inappropriate or do something just plain stupid. In fact, I think I remember running into a chair in the doctor's office this morning and calling one of my son's dogs a not so nice name. One of these days, my friend is going to say she's done putting up with me ... and I wouldn't blame her one little bit.

As is often the case, my blood didn't want to cooperate this morning, and the nurses had trouble getting enough to fill all the tubes needed for all the various tests and it seemed to take forever. I've been told so many times that I'm a "hard stick" ... it's almost impossible for the nurses to get blood from my arms, so they've learned to put the needle in the top of my hand (and yes, that hurts worse than the arm, friends, much, much worse). Sitting with my head resting on the arm of the chair thinking that the nurses were never going to be finished and wondering if they were draining every ounce of blood from my body, I started thinking about vampires ... more specifically, I started thinking about the Interview with a Vampire movie ... I started thinking about the beginning and the ending ... one man wanting to die and one man wanting to live. I wondered if it hurts to become a vampire ... I wondered if there really are such things as vampires ... I wondered about wanting to die ... I wondered about wanting to live ... I wondered why anyone would choose to make their living sticking needles into people and sucking their blood into little glass tubes ... I wondered about beginnings and endings, life and death, love and hate, compassion and cruelty.

The best part of fasting blood work is getting to eat a McDonald's breakfast burrito after my friend and I leave the doctor's office ... I'm not sure how that tradition started, but it's definitely my favorite part of the vampire visit mornings. I usually just eat the inside of the burrito and not the tortilla, but this morning I ate every single bite, tortilla and all ... and my friend even stopped and got me a Starbucks iced soy decaf latte with sugar-free caramel ... in case I haven't mentioned it before, I miss Starbucks ... a lot. After my friend took me home, I took a long nap ... and I dreamed about blood and food and vampires. And ever since I woke up, I've not been able to shake the overriding thoughts that have filled my mind today ... thoughts of beginnings and endings, of life and death, love and hate, compassion and cruelty ... thoughts of the power that my own blood has over me ... thoughts of the life-changing power of the blood that was shed for me by the only Son of God. Maybe visiting the vampire this morning wasn't totally bad after all ... it caused me to end my day thinking about the sacrifice that Jesus made to save me ... and somehow, that makes the needle in my hand and my blood being sucked into tubes worth it. And as I type those words, I'm breathing a prayer of gratitude ... a prayer of gratitude that when God looks at me now, He sees me only one way ... covered and washed in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb. 

"Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Are you walking daily by the Savior’s side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the Crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Will your soul be ready for the mansions bright,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb;
There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean,
O be washed in the blood of the Lamb!"