Take Me Home Lord Jesus

The month of September will be remembered forever, not for its beauty and warm summer weather, but for the uplifting of our mother to Heaven, the eternal home she so longed for during the past several months. Time had come. We had to let go. She wanted to be by her husband’s side and to see her three children dance on those golden streets.

“To everything there is a season…, a time to be born, and a time to die…a time to heal.” Ecclesiastes 3

Our beloved mother, born into this world struggling for her life lived eighty-six and a half years until she declared it was time to die. Her own words became a reality only four days later. She was home at last.

A sunny September day

That day as I walked into the nursing home dining room Mom sat quietly in her wheelchair, waiting, perhaps for someone to come, or for lunch or for the angels to take her home. Or for a family member. I was the first to arrive. Chills shook her frail body back and forth and she repeated “I’m cold.” I ran to her room to get a sweater, the yellow one, her favourite, and proceeded to put it on her. Buttoned each hole.

Still she was cold and tired.  I placed a yellow afghan around her shoulders, but warmth would not come. Soon my brother arrived, and next my sister came along after I had fed her a few spoonfuls. We continued our visit over lunch, but all the while Mom’s appetite, as poor as it had been, at least she ate a little and drank juice.

Soon after lunch we all left her side said our goodbyes, not knowing it would be the last time.  By the next hour she had laid down on her bed and slept. Moved to Heaven to stroll  on the streets of gold under the Glorious Light of Jesus, her Savior and Lord!

Carry me home

Here is a poem my youngest sister had written during a time of adversity. Now at last God welcomed mother home, lifted from this earth to Heaven to rejoice forever, free from darkness into the Light of Jesus.

Take Me Home by Anita Ball

I close my eyes and shed a tear

for my broken battered heart

too weak to blink too proud to bare

the wounded aching part

God lift me up take my hand

make the journey sweet

let me kiss this earth goodbye

and worship at your feet

your Presence full of wonder

takes my breath away

I need to feel you near

bring me home to stay

you know me deep within

forever you have known

with patience I have waited

for You to take me home

Beside still waters

Often we quoted scriptures together, and with her raspy whisper mom repeated a few lines, until she could remember no more. Her last ones.

Me:                 The Lord is my Shepherd

Mother:           I shall not want

Me:                 He makes me lie down in green pastures

Mother:           He leads me beside still waters.

 

Who can satisfy the soul? Do possessions, prestige, or activities bring the peace we long for? What desires fill our hearts?

Song by Aaron Shust Carry Me Home blessed me when thinking about mother’s last thoughts on earth.