November, the month that houses Thanksgiving Day is very special to me. Aside from eating to a state of stupor and feeling like an overfed octopus, it is my father’s birth and burial month. It is also an awesome time to reflect on the goodness of God. For some reason, the month of November has a habit of gracefully driving me back to August 16, 2007, the day my darling mother went to be with the Lord. I miss her so much but I know she’s looking down on me and saying, “My dear darling daughter, stay in the race, all is well.”
Memories of how my mom loved to help all and sundry flood my heart and provoke the release of a dam of tears. Caring for others for my mother was a matter of urgency done as if it was going out of style. She always wanted to know “what can I get you to eat?” Would you like something to drink? Anything you were lacking, she would do her best to provide. She was known for paying many children’s school fees. She adopted children, housed children, and gave children, who didn’t have a roof over their heads, a roof over their heads.
Throughout her lifetime, she donated to so many churches and organizations it was unreal, but what was so amazing about her, it never phased her, she was just doing what she loved to do. Even on her sick bed, she continued to instruct me to pay someone’s school fees, help this person or that person, give to this ministry or that ministry, and so on. Actually, the list goes on and on.
There were so many times my siblings and I challenged our mother. We often felt she should have done more for us instead of the strangers she constantly blessed. Two days after surgery was performed on her broken ankle last year, I noticed her breathing was labored. Although she was in pain, she was very insistent on speaking with all her children at the same time. Fortunately, the afternoon she made that request, we were all visiting her in the hospital. Curiosity reigned in our minds as we wondered what our ailing mother, who was almost fighting for her life, had to say to us. As we gathered she began to speak – “I want you all to continue my legacy of helping people in need.” She continued by acknowledging that she was proud of what each of us was doing however, she felt we could do a lot more. She advised us to sow into the lives of as many people as possible and to help ministries in whatever way we could.
This was the last real conversation she had with us prior to her death. When she died, our desire was to give her a homegoing ceremony fit for the QUEEN that she had been. We did not know how we were going to make it happen but if it meant selling our possessions to do it, we were more than ready. We made up our minds to look to the hills of God, and not the heels of man, for direction. But the God we serve had something else in store for us.
By the time the news of my mother’s death spread around the world like wildfire, we got the shock of our lives. People came from everywhere and poured unimaginable support, love, and finances into our dumbfounded hearts and hands. Once we counted up what people had given us, we were looking at nothing less than twenty-two thousand dollars. Why am I writing this? I’m writing this because God revealed to me that all the years my mother gave to others were definitely not in vain. She simply sowed seeds that her children are still reaping as I write. By the time she died, her loved ones were and still are reaping from the harvest her sowing had brought forth.
What about you my dear reader? Are you a giver or a taker? What investment are you leaving behind for your loved ones? What impact are you making in your family and community? As our Father in Heaven has so graciously given us a new lease on life, let us strive to give our fellow sisters and brothers new leases on life with any form of assistance we can render. I pray that the Spirit of God will direct our hearts, in Jesus name.
