Mom

 















This is my mom who would have celebrated her 77th Birthday today. God took her home 15 years ago and she is dearly missed by those who knew her and loved her - which is  most likely everyone who knew her. 

It is almost impossible to describe the loss of your mom to someone who hasn't been down that road, but it is profound.  I remember shortly after she died I was sitting in my Bible Study during the worship time and started crying.  Someone asked me what was wrong and I told her that I missed my mom.  Her response was something like, "Oh, you're still having a hard time with that?"  I was dismayed (okay, and a little angry) at her comment, but even now I have to chalk it up to someone who just hasn't been down that road...yet.  She will some day.  She'll come to understand that the loss continues for a lifetime.  It isn't the kind of thing that you can just slap a bandaid on.  Because a mom is a mom and the wound is deep.

My  peace, my only peace regarding her death, is that I share her unwavering faith in Christ.  She loved Him, followed Him, lived for Him and is now with Him.   ...and someday I will be with both of them.  One of the last things my mom said to me was, "Jesus knows best."  My mom knew me and knew that those were the precise words I needed to hear.  To carry me through her passing, to carry me through my life:  Jesus knows best.

I have had the blessing of vivid dreams of being with my mom. Wonderful, beautiful dreams of walking together, talking together.  I long for these dreams...pray for them to come.  It's all I have for now.
 
 I just need to say this: If your mom is still here...
~love her
~forgive her
~call her
~laugh with her
~cry with her
~write down recipes
~ask about heirlooms
~ask about her childhood
~share memories 
~hug her
~listen 
~talk to her
~spend time together

My mom was 57 in the above picture and died 5 years later at 62.  So young.  None of us know the days we have left, but I believe as David proclaimed, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Psalm 139:16  I know she believed that, too.

Love and Be Loved.

"Acknowledge and take heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below.  There is no other."  Deuteronomy 4:39

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."  John 3:16-17