Not exactly the day I anticipated. I received the call at about 12:40 PM that Mom had just died. Very little sorrow in my heart; mostly 99.9% rejoicing. And could fill lots of extra fun and funny pieces in at this moment; will do it in the next couple days instead.
Because...
on Friday, early afternoon, a 34-yr old man was killed while driving his car as someone drove past him and just buried his car in bullets. This man, Tony, was married and had 4 kids, the oldest 17, the youngest, Twin girls, 4. Made no sense... a number of witnesses, but no one arrested at this point.
The First Responders met today at the murder site. It was COLD -- about 10 degrees -- and we started at 2:00 with about 5 of us.... but the others came and came and came again. We ended up with around 30 people. Tony's family came about 2:30, and we circled them and prayed over them for several minutes. One teenage boy, a friend of Tony's son, cried and sobbed so intensely he almost collapsed and was held up by family and friends and prayers.
So, the reality of death was very strong for that stretch of time -- I had to leave after about 50 minutes as my body was beginning to ache too much from the cold -- and others were still there encouraging family members.
MY Mother's death... in one sense, it is no big deal. She's with the Lord, she was 90-1/2 years old on Friday, and my family was not surprised or shocked or unable to just bless her Going off to Heaven.
But... she wasn't shot while driving down the street, didn't leave 4 young kids and a young spouse behind, didn't have family and friends standing around, hoping to have enough money to bury her, hoping to be able to feed and provide life-needs for so many others.
That's what gives me the right perspective.
[If you think of it, pray for Tony's dear family. So much love, so much grief and sorrow poured forth.]
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