Grateful

Mum died yesterday at 2pm. It was quick. That’s what the doctor said. We are grateful, me my brother and my sister. Grateful to the hospital who looked after her and us really well. Grateful to the chaplain read to her from Revelation 22 moments before she died. Grateful that one of us, my sister, was with her when she died. I arrived ten minutes after. I was on my way to take the next shift of sitting at her bedside. My brother came as soon as he knew to come. Grateful that her dying wasn’t long and drawn out. Grateful that we all, together, and on our own got to say what we wanted to say before she died. Grateful to mum for the way she did her very best to live as a follower of Christ. Grateful for everything she taught us about the God she loved so very dearly. Mum wasn’t perfect. We knew that. She knew that. As you do when someone dies, we spent the evening talking together about some of the things we remembered about her. She had some funny ways. No really she did. But she did well. Really well. Life threw some curve balls to mum. Perhaps the biggest and the one that had the most far reaching consequences was the death, as 35, of her husband, my dad. But get this. My dad died 50 years ago yesterday.. Mum died 50 years to the day that dad did. Obviously she wasn’t conscious towards the end of her life, but she knew what the date was. We knew what the date was. Actually we were praying that she would die on 1st July. And she did. And we are grateful. Some people get very excited about God’s timing. And maybe the fact that mum died on 1st July was God’s timing. Maybe. If it’s true it raises some big questions about God’s timing. Not least why dad died so young leaving a young wife and family. If God can orchestrate calling mum to be with him on the day he called her husband, albeit 50 years later, then there some other things he really should have addressed in the world. I’m not really sure about it even though for us, today, it’s a comforting thought. I think I struggle with it because it does seem at times God (if I may be so bold) gets the timing wrong. There that’s upset some if you. Well, you can come to your onw conclusion. I think God’s better than being limited to this kind of thinking. And let’s be honest, the world if unfair, painful and sometimes cruel. But we’re still grateful that mum trusted in God regardless of the timing. She wanted to go home. And now she is. And for that, in all it’s stunning beauty and wonder, we are grateful.