eNews | Sun 14th Mar '21
Dear e-News friends, and church members,
Happy Mother’s Day!
To all our mother’s out there, young and older, new and experienced - Happy Mother’s Day!We love you, thank God for you and wish you the happiest day, even if you can only see your family on facetime.I for one am hugely grateful for my mother, who has now been in heaven for a while.She raised three lads single-handed (me being the youngest by 11 years), whilst often keeping down three jobs to put food on the table. For one thing, she taught me by example tenacious faith.When she was 70 years old she came to stay with us for a few weeks over Christmas and into the New Year.On a cold January day, she complained of a severe headache and took herself off to bed early. At midnight we had to call an ambulance and rush her to the hospital where she arrived in a coma.With a raging temperature, no-one could at first work out what was wrong. Eventually, mid-morning the results came back - she had contracted meningitis.I was shown her brain scans and had pointed out the meninges of her brain, where the blunt-speaking consultant told me that the nerve endings were ‘fried’. Still with a raging temperature and pumped full of antibiotics, he told me that my mother had no chance of survival, and even if she did survive, she would in effect be a ‘cabbage’ due to the extensive brain damage. I was told to summon any other family members who wanted to see her before she passed.I called my brother and he and my sister-in-law started the long drive up from South Wales. I sat in vigil beside her bed, praying. I have to say that I was not praying for her healing but for her comfort. In the middle of the night, whilst sitting beside her bed in a room alone just off the hospital main ward, my mother started speaking. She said, ‘No, not yet Lord’. I thought I imagined it, but she kept repeating this phrase. I went and found a doctor, who disbelieved me when I told him. He came back to the room, and my mother lay silent saying nothing.Having checked her vitals and convinced that she was still in a deep coma, he left the room and me alone with her. Then she said it again and again.The situation was compounded in that my mother was a cancer survivor, she had overcome a form of leukaemia. Whilst now cancer-free, they predicted her odds were less than zero.2 days later my mother came out of her coma, waking up laughing because she couldn’t remember my name or basic words. 24 hours later all her speech and memory were restored. 7 days later she walked out of that hospital.She went on to live several more years, and on the day she died, she told me that it was her time to go even though she was well. She died that night in her sleep.My mother remembered very little of her coma but knew that in it God gave her a choice, she told me that she told Him without any doubt ‘no, not yet’.My mother always determined, never willing to take no for an answer, was tenacious with her faith.Never, ever underestimate the power that a believing mother can have on their kids or in their home, no matter what age the kids are!Mothers we love you, we need you and we pray God’s richest blessings on you today.Sue invites all mothers to connect in with the latest edition of The Diamonds Box Group and special guest Allison Brown hereWe love you guys, Andrew