My parents were elderly, but able to live independently in their own home until one fateful day in 1997.
They left home as usual to go get groceries. My mother had no idea when she closed the door that she was leaving her home of many years for the last time. My father had no idea he would return there some weeks later alone.
They drove to the grocery store. They did their usual creative way of shopping. To conserve their strength, my mother took her shopping cart and collected the items from one side of the store, while my father took his cart and got the items from the other side. They then met at the check out.
They then began the short drive back home. On the way back, there was an accident and the car behind them hit them.
They were both hospitalized, but my mother’s injuries were severe enough she never recovered enough to come home.
She endured weeks of pain and declining health before she was promoted to her Heavenly Home.
My father was the self proclaimed pessimist in the family. He said my mother always saw the flowers while he saw the weeds.
He said jokingly he read somewhere that the things you worry about never happen, so he tried to worry about everything he possibly could.
My mother never saw anything as impossible. She frequently reminded us that with God, all things are possible. She reminded us when the children of Israel were backed up against the Red Sea with their enemies in hot pursuit, God opened the sea and they passed through.
My mother was so filled with God’s Wisdom that people were drawn to her. She made everyone she met feel special.
When she thought she would have to give up teaching Sunday School because she could no longer see well enough to prepare the lessons, the class begged her to continue. They read the lessons out loud and waited eagerly for her comments.
And so, after the accident, as she lay on her bed of pain, my father fretted about the uncertain future. She was not uncertain. She was certain God had The Plan and would reveal it in due time.
She said, “God has taken care of us all our lives. How could we do anything, but trust Him now!”
When we were all begging God to heal her, she joined the prayer, but her prayer was different from ours.
She thanked God for everything she could think of. Her prayers were filled with thanksgiving and praise. She thanked God for all the times He had made a Way when there seemed to be no way.
She prayed for each family member and friend by name, thanking God for how we had each been an instrument of His Peace and Love. She prayed Blessings on us in a future secured by God.
Never once did she question why she had been brought to the bed of pain. Never once did she count herself a victim. She was victorious because God was victorious through her.
She stayed on her mission assignment in two different hospitals before she was promoted to her Heavenly Home. The doctors, nurses, housekeepers, visitors and others testified of her amazing witness in the midst of suffering.
When I come to the end of myself and I think there is no solution to my problems, I hear her voice, sweet and strong. “Nothing is impossible with God. He will make a Way. He is The Way!”
”For nothing will be impossible with God!”
Luke 1:37
