What Will People Remember?
Precious in the sight of the LORD is
the death of his faithful servants.
– Psalm 116:15
I didn’t know her well but I had known her forever.
She was my Mother’s first cousin, a voice on the phone and a participant in endless
family stories more than someone I spent time with.
In the time leading up to my parents’ deaths, she was
a warrior. She opened her heart to my Mother’s cries. She checked on all of us
faithfully, then shared the status with her brothers and sisters. They were a
close sibling group and had always included my mother in their circle.
She’d turned 93 just a short time ago. She was done,
ready to go home and leave this life of suffering. She’d buried her husband and
her son. She’d dealt with the loss of her eyesight. Now her back and legs were
taking her to a place she just didn’t want to go. She told her daughter to call
her siblings.
Days later she was gone, a great hole created where
she once stood. Her prayers echo through my mind as I recall her voice. She was
just so faithful to show Him to those around her. It’s what I will always
remember.
What will others remember about you? Will they even
care that you’ve gone on? Are you certain of your destiny? Does your life
reflect that?
So many people stand on their lofty pedestal certain
of themselves even as they look down on others. They know exactly what to say
and when but their lives only reflect their lies and greed, their double
standards and their selfishness.
A dear friend mourns the death of her father-in-law
even as she deals with the ugliness of the wife he left behind. His wife plays
one son against the other, using manipulation to get her way. She considers
herself a fine Christian woman. I doubt anyone else views her that way. There
is no honor in her actions, no reflection of Jesus in the angry words that
blast from her mouth.
We are always quick to judge, aren’t we? Outsiders make
pronouncements on what they don’t know, believing lies that have no foundation
because it sounds good. Like the man who quotes the Bible but fails to live
what he claims to believe.
I never knew my Mother’s cousin to preach the gospel.
Her words were peppered with her faith but it wasn’t an outright Biblical
lesson. Rather she lived what she believed. She was kind and caring, she was
quick to pray and to show mercy and grace. She showed up even when her body
wasn’t physically able to do much of anything anymore. She didn’t offer up
excuses but rather reached out where she could to minister to those she loved.
That’s what all of us will remember about her. I’ve
grown weary of those who claim a faith they don’t live. I’m tired of those who
believe themselves blameless – only Jesus can honestly make that claim – and condemn
everyone else by standards they don’t live themselves.
I know that Jesus was waiting for this dear woman when
she finally made it home. Oh, what a family reunion there was! She was faithful
to the end, living her love of Jesus out loud for all of us to see. That’s
something we should all strive to achieve.
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