Mother

My mother called me from her hospital room tonight.  She sounds happy and peaceful, and I was thrilled to hear her voice.  You see, I am 2,700 miles away from her, across this vast land, and cannot call her!   The reason I can’t call her, is that the only time she turns her cellphone ON, is when she wants to call from it.    When I call her, I hear my own voice asking me to leave a message (I set up her answering machine) because her phone is invariably turned off.  

We talked for several minutes.  She told me that she has little else to do in her hospital room, but to pray for her family.  I’m so thankful that she does.  

We talked about the amazing aspect of the telephone, and she told me that she has had her very same telephone number since 1955.  She reminisced with me about when she worked in the Post Office in Markerville, Alberta.  There was a phone hanging on the wall there and she remembers being the “Operator”  sometimes, when people would want to make calls.  That must have been in 1949 or before.  

Every time she calls me nowadays, I thrill to hear her voice.  It tells me she was thinking of me, and that maybe she wanted to hear my voice too.  Two dear friends of mine have had funerals for their mothers in the past two weeks, so maybe I am especially tender right now, but I want to appreciate every minute I can have with her, for as long as I can.  

Time is such a strange thing.  I’ve heard it said that it doesn’t matter whether you live to be eight years old, or eighty – it goes by so very quickly.   It’s HOW we live that matters.  What am I doing today to “really live” and to make my world a better place?   I’ve often said, that “it’s never long enough”!    As humans, we always think that MORE IS BETTER.  Is that really true? Are three big pieces of cake really more satisfying than one little slice?  Think about it.  We crave more in so many areas of our lives.   We can be dissatisfied with what we have (no matter what it is) and think that if we just had ___________  (you fill in the blank) then of course we would be happy!

I want to choose to be content.  To realize that whatever God gives me IS ENOUGH.  To be thankful for the opportunities He has put in my life today, and to not be always craving MORE. He has proven Himself to me, again and again.   He WILL give me all that I need.   He will provide.   He, (HIMSELF, as the Irish say) is ENOUGH.  

At the end of my life, I want to look back and tell the generations to come, that God is good and can be trusted.  No holding back.  And I want that they should be able to look at my life and see that I did not hold back.  That I loved well and did it for God’s glory and with the strength that He gave me.  

I’m thankful for my mother who is being brave in the face of old age, illness, loneliness and the uncertainty of what her remaining days on this earth will look like.   She is trusting God and I hear contentment in her voice.  She has confidence that when it is time to leave her body, that she will be instantly present with her Lord.  She is not afraid.   I want to follow her example.  

My prayer is, “Oh Lord, have mercy on us and keep us close to You.”  

Thanks Mom for the lesson.