"Mom: Walks, Runs, Speaks"
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5:15pm - NEW YORK - 07.15.2005
I just got off the phone with the Lovely Bride. And roughly fifteen minutes ago, Mom woke up for the first time in really more than a day.
In more than eight months - she lept to her feet, took steps somewhat gingerly at first, and then with recklessness - she bolted.
For the first time in better than several days - her speech slurred no more. She was articulate, resolute, and above all honoring to the God who made her.
Yes about fifteen minutes ago she was ushered into the presence of the one she wanted to meet in person, more so than President Bush, Dr. Billy Graham, or even her real favorite Mary Englebright. And now the conversation she is having... one can only imagine.
As Aimee and I spoke we wondered what her social calendar will look like. How many friends, from so many days gone by will she reconnect with? There will be some surprises. Mostly there will be joy!
We wondered out loud if when she meets my mom, if they will drink tea, trim roses, and talk long of their love for God, and His gift to them in their children. They would have been nearly exactly the same age. They were seperated by only a few days.
One thing we know they will be thankful for... the end of those horrid chemo treatments, and the itchy wigs, scarfs, and hats... can't you hear them saying it? "If I had to scratch that spot one more time..." No more radiation. No more doctors probing, touching, poking.
We're also quite sure that as much as they may have enjoyed spending a weekend getting to know each other at the Biltmore in Santa Barbara, that neither of them will find the current accomidations crowded, too hot, too cold, and above all clean enough to eat off the floor - but so beautiful you'd never want too.
Both of them will probably share with the other that they left their families the best way they could. Surrounded by them, singing with them, praying for them - being loved by them. Both will share how one of the final things they could remember hearing before that journey - was the voices of their first borns - telling them they would be ok, that they had done a great job of bringing them up in the ways they should go, and to not worry.
Even though my mom did not know The Lovely Bride at the time - she will tell my Bride's mom how she had prayed for her. In return Celeste will tell Sharon that her daughter Aimee had assured her that when she had blessed her marriage to Kevin - he in turn pledged to take care of her - and to not worry.
I wonder tonight, if the first breath of the new air their restored bodies took in - felt as exhilirating, as their final breaths prior to their journey felt labored.
What portions of scripture will they recall, and giggle about - when they discover that they loved many of the same passages of scripture? How empathetic will the "amen" be when they confess that they also turned to the same verses as the other - when they walked through their shadowy-valleys?
How different is her world now - seperated from us for only 34 minutes - but now with HIM for eternity?
How good will the feast taste when they sit tonight? How strong will their voices ring out - when the choir sings praises tonight, tomorrow, and the day after?
Who these women were - in their final days - looked very little like anyone, any one of us recognized. Yet when their bodies are restored and whole, even then, how much better they will appear than in their best days here!
If life is a marathon, then they are the winners - going the harder, longer distance - and doing it in shorter time.
I can hear my Lovely Bride's mom asking mine about the gardens, and I can envision mine explaining to her that though she's been there since '87 - she really has yet to see very much of the totality of what there is to see.
"What about the one's left behind," Celeste may ask Sharon.
"The ones who know the ONE we love - they will be fine, and soon we will see them."
"And what about that ONE?"
"He is here, tonight we will sit at His feet, learn from Him, honor and glorify Him, and feel His pleasure in our company with Him".
The colors will be brighter. The roses will smell sweeter. They will laugh.
They may even cry...
Cry for those who rejected the ONE they love, and perhaps fear the idea of not being with them again. But these fears last not long.
They never can...
For that which they sought their entire life to find...
That which they felt they never would know...
That which they doubted if it could even be conceived...has come.
THEY HAVE FOUND...
THEIR...
PURPOSE!!!
And now - without the burden of pain, sin, hurt, or heartache - they Glorify the ONE who made them. They wait for those of us who have yet to make the journey through faith in Jesus Christ. And they ENJOY the newness of life they merely had glimpses of in their old place of dwelling.
Mom is home, she speaks, she walks, she runs, shouts, loves, and laughs! She is with the ONE who loves her most, and they exalt and rejoice in Him - now and forever.
Can you see it...?
DON'T YOU WANT TOO?
For God SO LOVED the world that He gave His ONLY Son, that whosoever believes in HIM, SHALL NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVER, LASTING...LIFE!
