As I was driving to school today, I heard it... THE song!! It was played as hundreds of friends, neighbors and family members stood in honor of our little bitty mama. She was tiny, but she held so much of the world in her hands. She was always there for me. She always loved me. She always supported me. She always lifted me up. "I Can Only Imagine" fills my car as images of that day surround me, well up inside me. All of these people standing in honor of one little lady who carried so much weight on her shoulders. 9 children at 30 years of age, without the support of her parents, without much money or food or supplies or time....but, oh, the love!!! It was her final celebration, our time to say not "goodbye", but "see you later", and we said it with words and songs and remembrances and honor.Today would mark her birthday. I have been thinking "Happy Birthday Mom" all day. I have been telling my students about her. I have been remembering her. I have been honoring her. I have been wondering if birthdays are marked or remembered or celebrated in heaven. She had her 73rd birthday with us here. She was born in 1931, so today, she would have been 80. Today, we honor and celebrate her. There have been days I did not believe I could go on without her. There have been days I did not know how to trudge through this life without her love and her support, but here I am, still trudging, and now I am able to say, yes, I wish she were here, but how fortunate we were to have her as our mom and to have her for as long as we did. Cancer is so unfair. It takes the good ones. It takes the healthy ones. It takes the loved ones. It takes the needed ones.
Pastor Don had a message just for ME on Sunday. He talked about reading through his Dad's bible and his Mom's bible and reading the notes they left in the margins. He wondered if his Dad and his Mom knew that someday, their children would read these words and KNOW that they are true. After all, if his Dad and his Mom said it, it HAS to be true. He likened that to the words written in the Bible itself. If those words were written by our heavenly father....and we know that to be true, after all, if our heavenly father said it, it HAS to be true!
Our parents leave so much behind with their words and their actions, and they live on forever with us on this earth. I find snippets of information and words and things from my parents and I hold on to each of them. I have scrapbooked just about everything I can get my hands on. I believe it is my way of holding on to them....of keeping them close.
Today, parents, love your children, teach them, tell them things, keep them close. One day, they will call upon these words and these memories to keep you close forever!
Giving thanks for a wonderful mother and the promise of her eternal home in Glory. Psalm 16:9–11~ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence,with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment