My mom smiled at me today.
Kind of. It's really hard to tell, because she has no teeth. A “helpful” staff member at the hospital removed her dentures, and no one can put them back in now because my mom won't open her mouth more than a half an inch or so.
But the fact that she recognizes me, and seems happy to see me, is a small miracle.
The other miracle is that I believe she has passed from death into life,in more ways than one.
Three weeks ago, my mom had a near fatal stroke, and my biggest fear was that she would die without knowing Christ. As she passed the critical first 72 hours, doctors told me she might survive, but she would never be able to eat on her own again, and would have to have a feeding tube the rest of her life.
She is now able to eat pureed food and even able to lift the spoon to her mouth on her own, but she has no interest in it whatsoever and I feel like the mother of a spoiled toddler, cooing, “Come on, Mama, just one more bite. You like mashed potatoes, don't you? Umm, that pudding looks good. Are you sure you don't want another little spoonful?”
The situation is still precarious, especially if she refuses to eat, so I'm taking advantage of every moment, talking to her about her cats when she is awake, quietly reading scriptures to her as she dozes. When a Christian chaplain offered her services, I sent the chaplain to my mom, who supposedly repeated the 'prayer of salvation'. I didn't see that happen, and when my mother is lucid, she's her same old cantankerous self, so I wasn't too sure about that.
A few days ago, a notary friend of mine came by to witness my mother scrawl her signature on a Power of Attorney so that I can take care of things for her. Anyway, soft-hearted, passionate-about-God Nancy knows the score with my mom.
Before she left, Nancy grabbed my mom's hand and told her, “I love you (she'd never met her before) and Jesus loves you.” Then she asked my mom if she wanted to call on Jesus and my mom nodded. Nancy said, “Let me hear you say Jesus” and my mom managed to pry her mouth open and say that Name. Nancy had her repeat a few more simple sentences, asking for forgiveness and confessing her belief in the Lord.
Of course, my mom was so spaced out on pain meds that if Nancy had asked her to say “I am a magic chihuahua”, my mother would have dutifully repeated that she was a magic chihuahua. So I'm still not sure if it “took” this time.
But I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears my mother's profession of faith, so I will choose to believe that her spirit understood, even if her mind was confused. And I am thanking my Father for answering my prayers to give my mom that “one more chance” to respond to the gospel. Whatever happens next, I have the peace of knowing that she was allowed once more to make a choice, coherent or not, and her choice this time was to call on Jesus.
So I have a little more hope now that one day, when I get to Heaven, I will see my mom there, beautiful and full of life again, smiling at me with all of her teeth!
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
