Saturday, December 23, 2017

REASON FOR THE SEASON....Day 23

2015.....the CHRISTmas that wasn't.  It wasn't a "normal" or "usual" CHRISTmas because I spent 12 days of it in a hospital room with my mother and 10 more days with her in hospice.  Yet...it was never really MORE CHRISTmas than any CHRISTmas I'd ever spent before.

You see that year I'd just finished decorating my home on December 3 when I received a phone call from the assisted living facility where my mother lived.  She was being rushed by ambulance to the hospital with breathing difficulty.  She had done this before and I thought a day or two in the hospital and we'd be back home and I would resume my usual CHRISTmas activities as planned.  But, God had other plans.

That year there was no CHRISTmas shopping except online.  There were no parties.  There was no baking and delivering goodies to friends and family.  There were no lunches and gift exchanges with friends. I did not get to see my granddaughter sing in her CHRISTmas program nor attend my son-in-love's graduation.   But I can honestly say I never felt closer to God in my whole life than I did those 22 days.  He never left my side.  He met me in ways that are hard even now to describe.  He blessed me and comforted me through friends, through my family and even through hospital staff.  He loved on me and carried me when I felt I could not carry on.

I will never forget the night I drove Mother to Hospice House.  I will never forget how it felt to drive into that parking lot and look at that building, knowing that Mother would never leave, this was her last stop.  It was so hard.  But the staff He provided were so kind, so caring and so understanding of all that we were going through.  He continued to minister to me there just as He had in the hospital.

My daughter had to work CHRISTmas day that year, so we were celebrating CHRISTmas on CHRISTmas eve morning instead of CHRISTmas day.  I had not bought Mother a gift yet since we had been in the hospital.  So I found myself out the night before CHRISTmas Eve trying to find a gift for her.  I could not NOT give her a gift on her last CHRISTmas.  But what do you buy someone who is dying???

I bought her a gown, mint green with tiny snowmen on it that came with soft pink footies.  Early CHRISTmas Eve morning I took them to her.  Her eyes were closed but I described them to her and brushed the soft footies against her cheek.  She smiled and said "Mmmmmm".  I told her I'd be back in a little while and I left.

During that whole month I had so many precious friends who ministered to me.  A precious friend who I'd known since we were 10, who had often helped me with Mother when I had to be away and who had always been able to make Mother laugh, had offered to come and sit with her while I did CHRISTmas with my family.  That is a true friend!!  It meant so much to me and I felt so blessed to have someone who loved my mother to do that for me.

I returned after we had our CHRISTmas with our family because I knew that her time was drawing near.  It was a long night, a stormy night of thunder and lightening.  Time seemed to almost come to a standstill the next day.

At 4:00 pm CHRISTmas day, Mother graduated into the presence of the Lord.  She got to wish Him Happy Birthday in person!!  As difficult as it was to say goodbye to her, the REASON FOR THE SEASON was never more real!  Because JESUS was born that first CHRISTmas morning in Bethlehem in a manger of hay, I will see my Mother again one day!!!  We are only separated for a season.  One day I will join her in Heaven and hear that heavenly choir that sang that first CHRISTmas morning.



So although each CHRISTmas is a little bittersweet because I am reminded of the hard days of that very different CHRISTmas, it also reminds me how grateful I am that JESUS is the REASON FOR THE SEASON.  I'm so glad that He came, so glad that God loved me so much that He sent JESUS to pay my sin debt.  I'm so glad that my mother trusted in Him and received His gift of eternal life and that so did I.  Because of that He is more the REASON FOR MY SEASON than ever before!!!


CHRISTMAS IN HEAVEN

I'm spending Christmas in Heaven
Oh glorious, wonderful day!
I've stood with saints of the ages,
Who found Christ the Truth and the Way.

I sang with the Heavenly choir.
Just think! I, who longed so to sing!
And oh, what celestial music
We brought to our Savior and King!

We sang the glad songs of redemption,
How Jesus to Bethlehem came,
And how they had called His Name Jesus,
That all might be saved through His Name.

We sang once again with the angels,
The song that they sang that blest morn,
When shepherds first heard the glad story
That Jesus, the Savior, was born.

O, how I wish you could be here.
No Christmas on earth could compare
With all the rapture and glory
We witnessed in Heaven so fair.

You know how I loved Christmas.
It seemed such a Wonderful Day,
With all of my loved ones around me,
The children so happy and gay.

Yes, now I can see why I loved it.
And oh, what a joy it will be
When you and my loved ones are with me
To share in the glories I see.

So Dear Ones on earth, here's my greeting:
Look up till the day dawn appears,
And oh, what a Christmas awaits us,
Beyond all our partings and tears!


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