Every year, in September, I’m reminded of my mom. Her earthly birthday was on the 24th. She passed away in 2011 at the age of 94. She was my best friend, my fiercest protector, and my greatest supporter until the day she died. The kindness and love she gave to her family never wavered, no matter what. I can still see her listening, comforting, offering advice, and serving us in countless ways often hidden from public view. She was never too busy to read to us or play games with us. My brother and I were blessed to be her children.
Unlike mine, hers was a hardscrabble life. The oldest of five children, she was expected to carry the lion’s share of responsibility and help care for her younger siblings. Growing up on a farm during the Depression, she was sent out with her siblings to hoe the cotton fields before daybreak during the summer. All year round they were expected to help their parents with milking, feeding chickens, fetching water from the well, and other chores as needed. They got few accolades for all they did—it was just expected—and complaining was never tolerated. With no running water or indoor plumbing, life was neither easy nor comfortable. But by God’s grace, she and her family made it through and never suffered hunger or foreclosure of their farm. Their trust in Him was seen and rewarded.
From an early age my mom had a heart for God, but even her spiritual life growing up was marked more by austerity and rigid rule-keeping than amazing grace. It would take her many years to fully grasp God’s love for her and believe “The Lord takes delight in his people” (Psalm 149:4).
She freely admitted to the mistakes she made in life and never used her upbringing as an excuse for them. I admired that about her. While her faith in God ebbed and flowed in different seasons of her life, she never blamed Him for the difficulties she went through. Throughout her life she suffered many losses and disappointments. One loss in particular profoundly impacted her: giving up her firstborn baby for adoption. This decision produced a deep sense of guilt and shame. Anxiety seemed to plague her from that point on.
But even that trauma couldn’t derail her faith in Jesus. One of her favorite verses was 2 Timothy 1:12. She always quoted it from the King James version. “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” HE is able to keep us. What a beautiful promise to hang on to when life goes south on us and we mess up big time. No matter what, He still delights in us and longs to forgive and restore us. As Paul wrote in Romans 8:38-39, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Nothing in all creation … that covers everything, doesn’t it? The apostle Paul begins this chapter of Romans with this incredible statement: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Here’s the reason. “What the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering” (Romans 8:1-3). Through Jesus, we’ve been set free from the law of sin and death. We’ve been made righteous by our Righteous Redeemer. If we can fully grasp this truth, our lives will reflect His joy and peace.
I witnessed the transformation in my mom’s life when she fully trusted Christ and let go of the shame she’d carried for so many years. Her tendency to worry about those she loved never fully disappeared, but I saw her become more secure in her relationship with the Lord as she matured in Him. Jesus became her primary focus. When I visited her, she enjoyed the time we spent singing hymns together or talking about Scripture more than anything else. The fellowship we shared around Him was a special blessing to us both.
Something else became clear to me. All that my mom had gone through in her early life made her more compassionate with other people. She understood their concerns, fears, and heartache. She could empathize with their sorrow and offer comfort when they were feeling anxious. Nothing is wasted in God’s economy. He uses it all—pain, suffering, sorrow, as well as joy, faith, and peace—to make us “competent as ministers of a new covenant” (2 Corinthians 3:6). If we let the Holy Spirit use all the experiences of our lives for His purposes, we can “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). We can be ministers for the Lord to someone else at any age!
The circumstances of my mom’s life in her final years were as challenging as her childhood. Given her health issues, physical weakness, and dementia, her earthly pleasures were few. But when we know Jesus, He can bring the light of His presence into our worst days, making the difference between despair and hope. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 42, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you … By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me.” How wonderful to know that “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him” (Psalm 103:10-11).
No matter where we find ourselves today, we can rest and rejoice in His love.
Thank you, Lord, for your compassion towards us. You saved us, knowing we could not save ourselves. You rescued us from sin and death. And you promise to be with us in every circumstance we face. What a beautiful promise! Help me to turn to you when life gets hard and trust that you are faithful and sufficient. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
