About a year ago at this time I was running a 5k. I came around what I thought was the last bend only to realize I had far more to go. To push myself, I immediately thought about my Oma who was hospitalized and fighting for her life. I kept thinking, if she can continue to fight for each breath the way she has for so long, surely I could finish this without stopping to catch mine.
Just a few short months later she went home to be with the Lord. Today, April 23, is her birthday. She would have been 78 years old today. Instead of spending her birthday connected to feeding tubes and taking her plethora of daily pills, she is dancing in heaven. She is singing with the angels like she used to before disease took her body captive. She is rejoicing in freedom and wholeness. Though she is sorely missed today and every other, I can’t help but smile when I think about her. I’m so happy her suffering is no more.
Even today, almost one year after she passed away, she is still one of my biggest inspirations. I’ve admired and respected her for as long as I can remember. She was a woman full of wisdom, elegance, and as her life drew near to the end, perseverance. She showed me how to see beauty in so many little insignificant things in this life. She was a living example of a woman who is polite, well mannered, and gracious. She taught our entire family how to fight when fighting is necessary. She fought with everything she had in those last few years, yet displayed selflessness even then.
And now, she is my reminder of why I’m doing what I’m doing. I think about all she endured in her last years on earth and how the one thing that kept her motivated was the unwavering hope she had. She knew that one day, when it was her time, she would be going to a place that was greater than any tube, medicine, or treatment. Her faith in Jesus was the central part of who she was. She endured because she knew this life was temporary. She gave all she had to this life knowing there was so much more beyond it. When I think about her life I ask myself why I’m not telling every person I see about the hope we have in Jesus Christ…about the transforming power He holds and bestows to us. No, he did not heal her physical body, but her soul was healed and was such a testament to the God who is sovereign.
April 23 will forever be a special day to me. The first thing I heard this morning was birds chirping, which Oma always loved! Not only is this day her birthday, but it’s a day for me to remember that I have good news to share. When I’m tired or drained, or caught up in my own selfish world, I will remember Oma’s story and proclaim the name of the one who saves!!!
Oma and Opa at my WVU graduation in 2009
One of my absolute favorite verses…
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Thought outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieveing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
2nd Corinthians 4:16-18
