Our homes were worlds apart from one another. But now we sit beside each other at church and sometimes in each other’s homes. I know that she does not fully know what I have faced in my 50 years on this earth. And I am not going to presume to know all she has seen either. I know some of her story, but not enough to understand her heart – not completely.
I know that she is strong. She has raised three amazing young men on her own. They are young men who love God with all their hearts so I know that she did this well. I know that she has faced loss. Her husband died when the boys were little and she was left with only her resolve and the grace that God had given her for that moment. She left behind her home and all that she knew to travel around the globe to be in this new place where she doesn’t know the language or the culture or the struggles. And she has survived.
I know that she is tender enough to have tears roll down her cheeks. And she was perceptive enough to recognize the loss in my own heart as well – all without words. We shared an embrace and she asked me to join her and another friend to stand together for a picture. The three of us, standing there like trees which have stood through hurricanes and still have sap running in our limbs.
There were others who wept today. It is Mother’s Day. It is a day that brings deep memories. It is day when the distance is magnified. It is a day when we long for things to be the way they once were, even for a moment. So, today as we “celebrated" Mother’s Day, we shared our grief. We shared memories of the women who gave us birth and who have since gone on to heaven. And today, when our tears mingled at Jesus’ feet for a brief moment I think He too felt our pain and wept along with us as one who was once separated by death from His own mother. A common grief – shared.
(As I finish writing this blog tonight, the story seemed somewhat familiar. I decided to look back and realized that this same woman and I had another exchange that moved me to write. In fact, I almost titled this blog “The Same” and then realized that was exactly what I called that one. I am sharing this because it is not redundant…it is affirmation. To read the older blog, click HERE.)