Bed Time Stories

From the time I can remember my Mom read to us at night.  Dad worked nights, so she'd get us all ready for bed and in our rooms, hoping we'd go to sleep. She'd sit in the hallway; our bedroom doors open and bring to life the tales of....The Little House on the Prairie, Indian in the Cupboard, Frog and Toad, The Sideway Stories from Wayside School, Ramona the Pest, Mouse and the Motor Cycle

To be honest I couldn't recite to you the list of books, or the general story line of most of those books.  I fall asleep REALLY easily and I was young.  What I do remember is listening to my Mom's voice as I fell asleep and that my Mom faithfully spent the time to read to us.

To say reading was important in our home would be an understatement. We had a great library of books.  Reading is how we expand our minds and imaginations. My Dad was constantly reading; Louis L'Amour books being his favorite. Mom is still constantly reading; murder mysteries being her favorite. She is also constantly reading books that expand her knowledge about the gospel. Plus I'm  sure I inherited her love of non-fiction, self improvement books. In fact the other night my mom handed me her small kindle and listed a bunch of books on there she thought I'd really like and would help me right now.

Pretty much every night my little niece runs into Grandma's room, grabs a book and climbs up on the bed asking for a bedtime story. Grandma is always up for a bedtime story.  It's one of the cutest things ever. I grieve over the fact that that my kids won't ever get to hear my Mom read bedtime stories.


Just the other night, before I left my Mom's house, she read me a bedtime story.  It was a story about Noah, God's love and a cradle in the form of an Ark. It's a story of God's heart breaking for us, and his tears flooding the earth. It's a story of God's arms wide open in His uncontainable, unending, unconditional, unbeatable, unfailing, unwrappable love.

"God sees our tears now. And the hurt flooding our world right now. And He offers everyone the greatest gift- a rescue, a wooden cradle, a wooden cross- and He whispers, "Come to Jesus." Noah and his family were saved by the ark. You and the whole family on this earth are saved by Jesus alone

Some horrible, awful, miserable, very bad days, you may look around and say, "If there is a God who really cares, He'd look at our world and His heart would break.

And God looks to Jesus, who went to the cross, that real tree, and says, "Look- My heart did break."

So when those floods of bad things happen, if you lean toward Jesus- if you incline toward Jesus, if you rest in Jesus- you get the Gift of Jesus, like an ark of love, holding you, carrying you, raising you gently up through any flood of sadness that fills the world."

As always, Mom with every word, every moment, every deed points me to the One who can heal and comfort me and you.

Update on Mom: For the past little while we have been draining Mom's lung twice a week. However, that has changed. We are now draining somewhere between 300 and 400 ml every two days.  That's a big increase.  The pain from this fluid build up is heightened by the lymphedema Mom experiences from her mastectomy back in 2008.  Thankfully she does receive some relief right after the drain occurs.  Mom is more tired these days too.