Mom was feeling kind of low yesterday. She was complaining of some kind of pain that she couldn't pinpoint and generally feeling lousy. She ate some breakfast, but when I went in to check on her she was kind of sprawled out on the table. We talked for a few minutes, and then she said, "I'm ready to go on and be with God."
I paused for a second or two to see if she would follow up on that one at all. When I met with just silence I responded, "Well, that's a good thing. It's good that you're ready to be with him. It's just obviously not quite time yet."
She sighed a bit and readjusted her position in the chair, swirling the remnants of her Special K in her bowl of milk. She thought about that for a while, then commented, "But I'm old. Why isn't it time yet?"
I considered the array of possible answers to that one. Finally I settled on, "What does that have to do with it? God obviously has something else for you to do around here."
Again she pondered, stirring, stirring. And her reply, "What? What could he possibly have for me to do?"
I was afraid she would ask that. I thought through another long list of possibilities. Getting back into crocheting afghans for people was a possibility, but she has had so much trouble with her fingers hurting that I was afraid she might just scoff at that one. I considered mentioning her recent drive to start reading the bible again. But then a different idea came to mind. "Wait a minute," I said, "I have it. I know the answer."
She sat up and looked my direction with a quizzical look on her face.
"No, really. Maybe, just maybe, it's so you can teach Cailyn how to wear all those classy earrings you have in there."
"Maybe so," she chuckled, with just the trace of a twinkle in her eye, "Maybe so." Haven't seen that from her in a long time.
She was still in a lot of pain, though, so we canceled my trip to the hearing doc in Houston so we could get her into the dentist to check the filling he just did last week. We figured that was as good a place as any to start trying to narrow down what might be going on. After an array of deadening strikes to her bottom jaw, he began the exam under the assumption that a root canal would probably be in order to the tune of $650 or so. But to his surprise, the assessment showed nothing. Instead he found two teeth in the upper jaw that were actually broken right at the gum line. That was unexpected. And it meant a trip across the street to the oral surgeon, where, for the new low price of just $512, he would pull the two offending teeth. Hours later, after beginning the new regimen of antibiotics and pain meds, she finally settled into bed for the night.
So what might today bring? More pain? Problem solved? One step down, untold others to go? Hey, it's a new day. It's morning. And joy comes in the morning.
1 Peter 4:9-11 says, "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen."
Father, please bring some relief to Mom today. Amen.
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