Mom, when you blew out these birthday candles, what went through your head? What did you wish for your future?
You probably didn’t know you’d be elementary tetherball champion in your city or one of the best artists in your high school. You probably didn’t know you’d have to battle shyness and loneliness. You probably didn’t know you’d join the U.S. Air Force, meet and marry the love of your life, have a baby, and move from California to Montana.
You didn’t know that you’d live there for 23 years, acquire a love for hiking and a distaste for cold weather, and continue your artistry through gardening, decorating, and painting your home (every room + the exterior. Multiple times.).
You didn’t know you’d watch your husband’s lifestyle radically transform through a relationship with Jesus and then begin a journey of your own with Him. You didn’t know that God would use you, young in your faith, to teach girls at church on Wednesday nights, then use you and Dad to run a youth group, then use you both to start an adult small group ministry. (Neither did you know that you would be cast in many church plays as the villain [if there was one] because of your…dramatic skills.)
You didn’t know you’d only have one child (thought you’d have lots of boys just like the families you and Dad grew up in) and then have to let that child go to Missouri, then Moldova, then Russia, then back to Missouri. But your personal experiences with God led you to trust and release.
You didn’t know that God would call you to Kansas to be a pastor’s wife, learn the ways of the Midwest, and make things beautiful with 40+ painting jobs. You didn’t know God had prepared you for ministry to every age by means of the Montana church which gave you a solid foundation in discipleship.
You didn’t know you’d bury your mom. You didn’t know you’d acquire a son-in-law. You didn’t know you’d end up living in the same city as your daughter for the first time in 12 years. You didn’t fathom that there was a God who gave the world to win you, who has no limits, and who is incredibly kind.
Did you wish for anything as beautiful and hard and remarkable as this?
HBD