Cocooning

When I came home from work late Saturday night (Mother's Day Eve), Rich had flowers waiting for me and a small gift: a framed silhouette of an angel and the words,

"BELIEVE in the promise of this day."

Rich is good at living in the moment, and savoring life's small things. And so I don't think he was intentionally referencing my sister's battle with cancer when he made this particular Mother's Day purchase. But, I couldn't help but think about my sister when I placed the gift on my living room bookcase.

The plaque is a wonderful reminder to live each day fully, and to cherish every person God puts in my life. Sue faces her life-threatening illness with courage, grace, and most importantly God-given HOPE. But I think it's her willingness to face mortality straight on (instead of deny it) that helps her to live in the moment, and at the same time believe in her Creator to sustain and heal her. . .to supply ALL her needs. Sue's journey and her willingness to talk about it is helping me to do the same. To trust God with every little detail of my life.

Thinking about how much it would help everyone to face their mortality, I went on a search for the bible verse that says something about our days being numbered, and surprisingly a verse from Isaiah found me instead. It's a verse I underlined last year, on Mother's Day when I was involved in a biblestudy on the feminine images of God:

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." (Isaiah 49: 15-16)

Amazing! Engraved on the palms of God's hands with a promise that we'll NEVER be forgotten. Nurtured and cherished forever by our life-sustaining Spiritual Mother. She is hushing our fearful cries with a lullaby of LOVE. Can you imagine it? YOUR name carved into the hands of the very arms that embrace you?

And so on this Mother's Day, my kids and I did nothing out of the ordinary, but to me it was extra-ordinary: playing kickball as a family, laughing with the neighborhood kids, sitting around our kitchen table sharing Gina Maria's pizza, running to Target with Jennifer for weed-killer (or maybe I should learn to love the dandelions too? Ha!) browsing books at the library, chatting with my mom on the phone, and losing my breath all over again at the beauty of the flowers in our garden.

May we learn to trust our Heavenly Mother with the problems of tomorrow, and BELIEVE in the promise of this day!