Don’t forget your mother. She might be the only person who always loved you and believed in you. She prayed for you when everyone else lost hope. She believed that one day you’d get your life together. And you did. There is something about the heart of a believing mother. She is connected to God on your behalf and might be one of the reasons you are where you are today.
She’ll always be your mother, no matter where or how she is.
I visited a friend in a nursing home this week. I recognized several people and remembered their lives. Once active and so meaningful to others, now trapped in their bodies because of health reasons and other conditions. We watch them leave us as their lives change and they start to disappear. They have allowed emotional death to take them before their physical death comes.
I saw forlorn faces, empty gazes, lost stares. Many need assistance to move, some in wheelchairs, some with their heads hanging down. They have disengaged, forgotten how to be interesting, and yet they need to see a familiar face or hear their child’s voice at the other end of the phone. Some sit and wait, staring at the door for you — disappointed it wasn’t you.
I wanted to say to some of the lovely women at the nursing home, “I remember you when you were highly productive, you brought life to Pagosa in your way. You were good mothers; you raised good children. Some of you taught my children in Sunday school and had a big impact on their faith. You are still women of faith; no one can take away what God has put inside you. You are mothers, grandmothers and wives. Don’t lose sight of who you are. You are still that person.
“Life has done a turnabout on some of you. Today, you might stare into space. What is going on behind that stare? Are you possibly wondering why you’re not in your own home? Why your family has forgotten you? Why you can’t feed yourself? Why you are with strange people you don’t know?
“One thing is certain: Jesus hasn’t forgotten you. He remembers how he created you to be before you became you. He has been very generous to you by giving you many days. He has recorded you in His book. It’s impossible to disappear from God or to ask the darkness to hide you, for His presence is everywhere. He will bring the light into your night. Trust Him for the days you have left.”
To the children, I say, “Your mother is a living story for those around her. She is the taproot of your family. She is that main root that grows straight down into whatever soil in which she is planted. She gives off roots for you and the start of your family and your roots. She is the reason for your existence.”
Mothers, while you sit and wait, keep praying. Nothing is more needful at this present hour than prayer that draws its power and the direction from the Holy Spirit. Small in your space, hidden from the human eyes, your hearts are wide open to heaven and the saints in heaven join with you in this operation of God’s love.
This message is to encourage mothers who woke up with old pain and new aches. It is in the present we learn to live life. We are reminders to our children. Our lives are immediate. Our lives are brief. We glean understanding from yesterday’s trials, but it is today we see the importance and purpose of why we are still around.
Final brushstroke: Yes, the Lord is holding back the next season from you. Someone still needs you here on this earth. He is revealing his glory in you. Wrinkles and sags, your face is full of grace. Those who have eyes of the heart to see, they will see you. You are not forgotten.
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