Women of Faith
This year has been a hard one, this week especially.
I got a call saying my mother had been taken to the hospital with a life-threating situation. There in the emergency room, I watched as my mother’s life was teetering between life and death. As I stood by her side studying her face, she looked at me but I knew she didn’t see me. As she was taken to have emergency surgery, my mind went to what would I say about my mother if she should die tonight. In our past, there have been a lot of “difficulties” so I was struggling to put past and not so past hurts behind. I began to evaluate what she has taught me over the years that had lasting …eternal value. I found one thing, The One person, my Friend, Jesus.
When I was a child, going to Sunday School, trying to understand who Jesus was, my mother told me to talk to Jesus like I do my grandpa. Now, I loved my Grandpa, so I had no trouble talking to Jesus. I talked to Him all the time. Some of my favorite memories are lying in the grass, looking up at the blue sky while thinking and talking to Jesus. My relationship with Jesus was a close one. He was and still is my best friend. He has never left me and because of His relationship with His/ Our Father, I was grateful I had Jesus to intervene on my behalf when I acted a fool in my younger days. I am forever grateful to my mother for introducing me to my Friend, Jesus.
My relationship with Jesus was great as I grew into my adult years, but it was also stalled. I didn’t know it until I met Claire. Claire was an eighty-year-old woman in an adult Sunday school class I attended. I don’t remember the circumstances of why, but I do remember what Claire said to me one Sunday morning. She referred to, 1 Corinthians 3:2, and told me, “You need to get off the milk and start getting some meat.” I didn’t understand what she was talking about, until I went home and read the scripture. I was embarrassed for myself, grateful to Claire. That was 1995. That was the year I asked the Holy Spirit to help me read the bible with understanding. I didn’t care how long it took, I wanted to read this book like I read any other, from front to back with understanding. (I did allow myself to go between old and new testament if I became stuck, but I had to stay in order.) My life was changed. I would cry as I read how deeply God loves His creation, His people and the great lengths He would go to get mankind, particularly the Hebrews, to turn back and love Him. A love greater than I can even begin to understand. I committed my life to follow Jesus, no matter how crazy people might think I am. I am convinced He is the way, the truth and the life. I am forever grateful for Claire and how she had the courage to tell the truth to me. I might have never realized my need for a savior, the Savior, my Savior, Christ Jesus.
There have been many men and women of faith who have made an impact on my life, but none as much as Mary, Jesus’ mother. How amazing and faithful she was as a teen to accept and live her life in obedience to God’s will. I can’t even wrap my mind around the reality of all she and Joseph went through carrying The Savior of the world: protecting Him, teaching Him, loving Him. Even as I write this, I have to stop and contemplate the magnitude of their faith and obedience, even through great times of doubt and fear. There is one account of Mary that changed me forever. That is when she asked Jesus to change the water into wine at the wedding. Here was Mary, enjoying the wedding, when she realizes the wine is gone. I am assuming she had a close relationship with the host of the wedding because she intervined by going to her one child, her divine child she knew could help. Everything was forever changed that day at the wedding. People who knew what Jesus had done witnessed His first miracle. I wonder what they were thinking afterward. I wonder if the disciples even began to understand just how well Jesus could provide for and protect them.
But Mary, Mary had to move her understanding within herself that her son was also her Lord and Savior. Mary had to stop mothering Jesus and begin to worship Jesus. I think that this was the beginning of what Simeon meant in Luke 2:34:
34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
My mother introduced me to Jesus.
Claire told me I had to be accountable for my relationship with Jesus.
Mary taught me Jesus must be Lord over, as well as, Savior of my life.
Thinking of this, my heart is softened toward my mom. She started me on the path to the greatest gift ever given… my Savior, my Lord my Friend, Christ Jesus.
For this I am forever grateful.
**my mother is going home from the hospital tomorrow 🙂
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