Special way to honor my mom

I think I mentioned that I had found part of the gifts for the nannies and guides that we want to thank in China but had been putting off posting about them.  Well, today is a good day to post.

Today my mom had surgery to stabilize her femur (leg bone) as it was near breaking because of the damage the cancer has already done.  We found out a couple of weeks ago that the breast cancer she has fought twice before had returned and is now all over her skeletal frame.  To keep her safe, the surgeon put a hollow rod down the center of her bone this morning and nailed it into the ball of her hip (the top of the femur) and screwed it down at the knee.  I went to the hospital this morning to be with my parents and stay with my dad while he waited for the surgeon to finish.  We got to see the x-rays - so amazing what doctors can do.  Please be praying tonight as she continues to struggle with coming out of the effects of surgery.  And please also pray for the pain control - that the nurses would stay on top if it through the night.  I know she is hoping to go home tomorrow, but it remains to be seen presently.

All that to say, I've been thinking for months about what we could bring for our gifts.  I never could get peace with any idea that I came up with, read about, or ideas that had been suggested.  The other night though, I found these bracelets online and knew they were perfect.  I emailed the director at our agency and asked if they would be okay to give and she said she loved them and that they honored my mom and she reminded me that we are special to her and that she's really praying for all of us.  So I ordered them and they came yesterday.

I'm not sure what the next days, months, and years hold.  But here is what I do know:

my mom is safe and secure - not because of the amazing care of the medical professionals, but because of Someone far greater...

You see, it comes back to the age old question - why to bad things happen to good people?

2 things - 1. bad things happen because we live in a fallen and sinful world (God created it perfect, but when sin entered, bad things happened).  And 2. there are no 'good' people... we are all sinful.  My mom is not being punished for some sin she committed - that's not what I'm saying.  What I'm saying is that we can't ask why bad things happen to good people because none of us measure up.  We have all fallen short of the goal.

I like to say it this way - if Titus, Phil, and a professional baseball player (even though Titus thinks those last two are one and the same) all threw a ball with the goal of throwing it from one side of Lake Michigan to the other, it wouldn't matter that Titus would throw it 2 feet and the professional much farther.  What would matter is that none of them could accomplish the goal.

And that's the problem with sin.

But my mom has been rescued from that sin.  She has come to know and believe that there is nothing she can do to accomplish the goal.  Because of her own sin, she can do nothing to become perfect.  Because the standard for Heaven is perfection, what hope can any of us have?

The Bible says we are "dead in our sin"... and that the punishment for our sin is death...  so not only are we already dead in our sin, but our punishment is also death?  It means that our plight is utterly hopeless without Someone who is alive who could sacrificially take our punishment for us.  A dead person cannot die.  Only Someone who has never sinned and who is spiritually alive can actually die.

And that is just what Christ did.  He came, knowing all our sin past, present, and future, and willingly took the sins that we've committed and paid the penalty on our behalf.

And even if it was just my mom in this world and no one else living here, He would have still died just for her.  If it was only you or me alone here on earth, Christ would have still loved us so much to come and rescue us from eternal death - eternal separation from Him.

my mom is safe and secure - because she knows she's been rescued.  She knows that there is no good work that can help her get into better graces with the Perfect Creator of the universe.  She has, instead of running the hamster wheel of trying to be worthy of God, realized and put her trust in Him to take care of the sin problem by taking her punishment for her.

But it gets even better than that.  Not only did Jesus Christ die in her place, He conquered that death and rose again 3 days later.  I asked Lily this last week why that is so important - that Jesus didn't stay dead.  She said she wasn't sure.  It's because He needed to be able to give us eternal life and how could He do that without conquering death and living Himself?

Tonight, my mom is hurting.  It's been a long hard day following the surgery.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  They don't.  Bad things happen to bad people because not one good person can be found on this earth.  The real kicker is that Jesus loves all of us bad people, so much that He grieves because of our pain.  You know the shortest verse in the Bible?  "Jesus wept."  You know why He wept?  Because someone He loved had suffered and died.  All the tears we've cried these last three weeks - Jesus gets it.  And He has tenderly cared for us.  He loves my mom, me, my family, and the whole world... enough to give up His life just to give us the chance to be with Him.

I love you, Jesus.  Thank you for all You've done and are yet to do.