On The Same Day

I have always found it interesting that on the same day opposites can occur.

Things are lost and things are found.

People marry and people divorce.

Some are born and some die.

All on the same day.

So, it was in this same thought process that I read a letter that my wife had opened and left on the table. It was from Southern Regional Hospital and said, “Dear Derinda, we are pleased to inform you that the results from your recent tests have returned and we can find no cancer.”

And it was on the same day that I was sitting with my mom as she explained all that happened earlier during her first visit from the hospice nurse and those who would assist her in transitioning from this life into the next after a very long battle.

You see, she has battled cancer in one form or another for nine years. And now that her time of going home is closer I thought I would list a few things I think special about her. There are many more.

When the hospice workers came in to her apartment yesterday she told them, “You can not murder me.”

When she told the nurse in training that she will live to March 18th, for that was the day she was told three years ago that she would only live another six to twelve months.

When, two Christmases ago, she was at our home sitting in a big chair and I crawled up in it, leaned on her and fell fast asleep as though I was three again.

When, recently she could not get up out of the bathtub and the reality of her weakness set in.

When the hospice nurse told me on this phone this morning, “John, this woman has been battling cancer with Tylenol. That’s remarkable.”

When she often gets on me that I am, “pushing her in the grave”, and follows that by saying, “I will not go one second before I am supposed to.”

So, in the coming weeks, she will be doing different things at different times for the last time in this life.

And then, as she approaches her celebration of victory she will experiencing different things at different times for the first time in the next life.

As I read the letter again from the hospital and what I had been given and considered that on the same day I had been told of what I would soon lose, I was reminded of Jobs beautiful statement when that which was precious to him was taken.

“He said, Naked I came from my mothers womb and naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.”

That is what many of us could also say in times like these. However, it was the next phrase that separated him from many others.

“Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

And the Bible ends that chapter this way.

“Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.”

God is faithful.

He is bringing my mother into her rest.

He is allowing me to be in her arms like a child for a few last remaining weeks and days.

We will be separated…but only for a short time.

I am strong because of God.

I am God’s because of my mom.

JHH