Most people understandably avoided engaging in too much of a conversation with me on the matter.
After all, she had just died and it’s a sensitive time. It’s not easy to know how to engage with people other than to offer condolences.
So I appreciated this one friend actually have a conversation with me without looking like they had to walk on eggshells.
“So what was she like?”
A fairly innocuous question, but I didn’t answer immediately. The question made me stop and think. Stop and think about all the things I could say …
“Was she a Christian … like you?” was the follow up question as my friend saw my contemplative look.
What a question. I remember laughing at that one.
I laughed because there was so much she was responsible for in my entire understanding of what it was to follow Jesus. The power of prayer? She exemplified. The call to serve? She exemplified. The natural response of praise? She exemplified. Sacrificial living? She exemplified. Growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus? She exemplified.
What made her someone who definitely helped me in faith was just as much about her relationship with her flaws and failings. She never portrayed an image of one holier than thou. She didn’t give the impression that she had it all in shape without any problems. In fact, she was a lot more honest about her struggles and failings. She was honest about it and showed what it was to take it to the Lord in prayer.
Was she zealous about sharing the good news with others around her? Did she show a keen desire to tell others of Jesus? It’s not the strongest memory I have of her. I do know, however, that she would love people with all her being and could explain the reason for her doing what she did. She certainly wasn’t compromising her stance in her trust in God. That stance came under a great deal of pressure from both outside the church and inside it. There were temptations along the way to leave the church or depart from the faith. I saw her face these struggles with ever growing faith in the one who redeemed her. It seemed to reinforce her need for God and that left a massive impression on me.
So I chuckled at the thought of my Mum being a Christian like me. I would be doing well if I was doing the Christian thing like her. Having said that, she never put herself across as the standard of righteousness to be emulated. She definitely pointed me to develop a relationship with Jesus for myself. She didn’t want me to place all my eggs in the one basket of a man’s example in case I ended up with the omelette of disappointment. (Just as well, really, she knew I hate eggs at the best of times.)
Followers of Jesus are often referred as saints. So it’s no great statement to suggest that my Mum was among the saints. Those who tirelessly lived as if Jesus was all the world to them.
I conveyed this in some form to my friend. It convinced my friend to such a degree that he exclaimed, “She must have been one amazing woman of God.”
This I believe she was.
(Photo by Jackson David on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 