On this Memorial Day weekend I have been thinking a lot about my mother…to be honest, I usually am thinking a lot about my mother, but today I think I had a breakthrough of sorts. For those who don’t know, my mother died three years ago when her breast cancer returned after a 6-year remission. Ever since she got sick again I’ve thought and said aloud that she lost her fight with cancer. But I realized a few minutes ago that I am wrong. Cancer didn’t win! It certainly laid her low and made us all miserable to see her so sick, but cancer didn’t win.
Who won? God won! The Jehovah that Mom had studied with her Grandmother Bateman as a small girl, the God she told us all about who was so alive for her that her favorite hymn was “In the Garden” — when she was too sick to continue on this earth, her God gathered her up in his loving arms and took her home with Him in Heaven.
Does realizing this make me miss Mom any less than I did before? Of course not. I still miss her in every corner of my being. But realizing this will make me tell her story differently, because it is no longer a story of loss, but one of triumph! No longer will I say, “Cancer took her from us,” but “God called her home”. Home where she is no longer sick, and will be waiting for us when it is our turn.
I love you, Mom.