There’s a whole closetful of stuff at our Mom’s place that’s gotta go.
With God’s grace, she’ll be moving soon to a new place, an assisted living place, that will give her much more room for the care that she now needs as a 98-year-old … but – alas – much less room for the material treasures she’s collected over a long-and-blessed lifespan.
Dang, is this hard!
Every single piece of stuff seems to carry a memory or two … or twenty. And Mom’s memory is excellent; her skills as a story-teller is one of the extraordinary blessings she had long brought into the world.
She tells and tells and tells … and it seems every person she comes into contact with becomes enthralled with this beautiful and talented and loving woman.
She’s got many great stories – stories that remind one and all (as St. Paul might put it) of “the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!”
So now, with the move imminent, making hard choices about what stuff stays with her – and what has to go – seems a little like dying. Check that: it’s a LOT like dying … dying by a thousand cuts. You start to wonder why the good Lord is putting her (and us) through all this. And perhaps that’s why St. Paul reminds us: “How inscrutable are [God’s] judgments and how unsearchable his ways!”
And when you start to bend your will to God’s unsearchable ways … when you allow your stony, reluctant heart to be molded by his good and holy judgments … God sends his Spirit to remind you that the stuff doesn’t really matter all that much.
God says, “Hey … have you already forgotten about this past Wednesday … when Mom had all five of her sons together, for the first time in a LONG time … so she could celebrate Gerard’s 71st birthday, family style?”
Then God says, “Beloved Sons, trust Me. I’ve got this. I want what’s best for your mother … just as you do. Just keep loving her, and doing your best, and let Me give her even more chances to bless her little corner of the world.”
So maybe we just take a deep breath, all of us.
Maybe we sit quietly with the Lord on this day of Sabbath rest, and listen – really listen – to what St. Paul declares about the nature of the Living God: “For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To [God] be glory forever. Amen.”
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 
Possessions trigger memories and we learn soon it’s not the stuff, it’s the people and lives touched — hopefully as we clean, new people can use them to create new memories…
It’s definitely a daunting and heartbreaking task, even when you know mom’s move is for the best. May she continue to share her good humor and plethora of stories with the people in her new residence. God bless her!
That’s exactly what I’m thinking and hoping, Mary…that she will be blessed by her new community, and that she will bless them, too!
Women from that era are some of the strongest I know. My mother, who died in 2020, would have been 100 last month. She endured various ailments, and complained very little, preferring to look at her blessings, especially family members.
John,
Love the picture and your reflections.
David Fitzgerald