Women

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My Mother

My mother recently celebrated her seventy-ninth birthday. I’m thrilled to appreciate this gift of growing older with her.

Last summer my parents came from Michigan to spend ten days with my family here in Ohio. As I feel the spring air and go to the places I took my parents last summer I reflect on the delightful time we shared together. When I sit here in our blue recliner chair I envision my dad sitting in that chair. Mom, sometimes sat in the rocking chair next to him. They talked together about the summer activities going on out the front window. Mom loves to browse the shops close by our home. I drive past them now, and feel anxious for her ten day visit this summer, when we’ll again plan to visit those shops. The beautiful spring days we’re enjoying right now bring alive those days’ worth of precious memories.

In January my husband, Bob and I flew to Florida to spend several days with my parents there. I helped Mom piece a complicated quilt top. She had a little trouble figuring out the different angles, and even more trouble putting the blocks together on her sewing machine. She decided against the machine and sat many evenings hand stitching the pieces together. I blessed her for trying, at nearly eighty-years-old, to tackle such a difficult project. She and I took golf-cart rides together and shopped at her favorite Rite Aid store.

A few months ago Mom phoned me asking if I would have a book to suggest for her to give to a young mother. This young lady was looking to my aging mother for counsel. I felt blessed again to have this kind of interaction with Mom.

Just a few days ago I suddenly recognized that I am experiencing a privilege many ladies have not enjoyed. There is a bond between a mother and daughter that cannot be created in any other relationship. I’ve ached as I’ve heard of numerous young ladies who have laid their mother to her earthly rest. I’ve sorrowed with them over the loss of not growing old with their mother by their side. I’ve hurt as they’ve longed for that most important person in their life to enjoy their own children, her grandchildren. I’ve lifted them to the throne and asked the Father to fill that empty void in their heart with His very presence. And I’ve blessed the Lord again for the privilege I have of enjoying my mother, even at the ripe age of seventy-nine.

As we look into another Mother’s Day month I know it’s with mixed emotions that many ladies face it. I realize that in the years ahead I will likely stare at Mothers’ Days with a tear-filled heart. I’m honored to know I will have precious memories but I wonder, at times, how I’ll choose to focus on those over the sorrow I’ll feel. Some of you have crossed that path. You know the journey to memories through your pain. And some of you are facing the first year without your mother.

I’m filled with thanksgiving that the Father is a Redeemer. He binds up the broken and bleeding places in our hearts. As we sit in His presence, whether we’re enjoying our mother here on this earth, whether we’re hurting over her departure, the Father comes along side of us, and redeems our situation with His healing presence.

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