Beth Riviere
About Mom,
I am celebrating with her because her body had become a prison. Her beauty was trapped in a non-functional shell.
We started noticing significant issues in about 2000 and she has been in a nursing home setting for the last 7 years. She had no muscle control and couldn’t speak. She could communicate, Yes, No and, I love you, by making slightly different sounds. We knew she was paying attention; even as recently as last summer when the grandchildren gathered in her room, she would laugh at someones joke! It was heart-wrenching to visit and consider the empty hours she spent in her wheelchair or lying in bed.
(My sister valiantly visited her every day and kept us all connected with phone calls on speaker-phone.)
My mom was an accomplished musician. She played piano and organ, she had a beautiful alto voice. She taught piano lessons and was an accompanist. We always had someone to play Christmas carols and she put together “shows” (starring Jane and I :O) for Mother-Daughter banquets. She took us to The Nutcracker and Swan Lake and the Symphony.
My mom was stoic under extreme pressures that life brought her way. I never knew her to be angry or bitter. She never gave in to depression or despair. She was amazing!
Currently, she is experiencing every joy of heaven. On earth, her body had become a prison, now she is set free! Her incredible limitations have fallen away as if chains have fallen off. I imagine her with angels wings as strong as those in the movie “Maleficent.”
The day before she died, as I was pondering the possibility of her dying (but not really expecting it) I had the most overwhelming sense of giddy joy as I thought of Mom in heaven. The thought of verses I had heard before, about heaven being a place where believers romped about like young calves - I loved the thought because it fit mom, an Iowan and a farm girl; what fun to imagine her with such vitality! The next day, during my Bible reading, I was led to read Malachi 4:2 because it is an Old Testament reference for Luke 1:78 where I had been studying.
“But for you who revere My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.”
This was such a gift to me from our Lord; incredible in how He led me to it - perfect - comforting - reassuring - makes me smile.
On the day of her funeral and several times since, 2Cor 4:15-18 has been brought to my attention, from JB Phillips translation: “We wish you could see how all this is working out for your benefit, and how the more grace God gives, the more thanksgiving will redound for His glory. This is the reason we never collapse. The outward man does indeed suffer wear and tear, but every day the inward man receives fresh strength. These little troubles (which are really so transitory) are winning for us a permanent, glorious and solid reward out of all proportion to our pain. For we are looking all the time not at the visible things but at the invisible. The visible things are transitory; it is the invisible things that are really permanent.”
I absolutely love the thought that my mom is now experiencing a permanent, glorious and solid reward out of all proportion to her pain. Thank You Lord Jesus!
- Beth (Nordin) Riviere