Reflections on Mother's day, eight years later

This past Sunday was Mother's Day. Mother's Day is simultaneously one of the hardest and best days of the year for me. It's a day where I praise the Lord for giving me a mother who followed Christ and faithfully shared the Gospel with me throughout her entire life. I thank him for allowing me to have 18 full years with her. But at the same time, I can hardly believe this was my eighth Mother's Day without her. I remember when she first died, not even being able to imagine my life or my family without her this far into the future. But God, he is so gracious. "But God..."--those are just two of the sweetest words in the English language to me. They change everything.

Since getting married, days like Mother's Day grieve me particularly when I think of how my husband never got to meet or know my mom. He doesn't know from experience that I have my mother's hands. Or that I inherited my feet's propensity to always be cold from her. She passed on to me her eye color, her love for teaching kids, and her interest in "old" things--furniture, houses, etc. (They have more character). But more than any of that, she shared with me the life of a sinless man who died on a cross for the sins of the world. I so wish Matt could have known her.

I remember on several "big" days of my life, such as my graduation or wedding day, being told by well-meaning people that my mom was "watching over me." And that she's "there with me." While I appreciated the care behind what they said, I didn't find those things all that comforting. I think God has more for us. My mom was a Christian and the Bible says that if we are "in Christ," then to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). What an amazing, earth-shattering thing to say about death. I don't know if my mom sees the big events in my life or not. And honestly, it really doesn't really matter to me either way. What matters to me is that she is now face-to-face with her Creator. She is enjoying and celebrating her Savior--in his very presence. And her faith has become sight. I can't think of a better legacy for a mother to leave her children than that of faithful prayer and the good news of Jesus.



Happy Mother's Day, Mom. On Sunday, I praised God for your life, and how he used you in mine.

And then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped.~ Rev. 5:11-14