Something changed in me recently. I received a healing that I neither expected nor requested. I wrote recently about the volatile and difficult relationship I had with my mentally-ill mother. For years I tried to reason with a woman who did not have the capacity to reason. Our relationship left me impatient, angry, frustrated. It left me wounded in many ways.
I have forgiven my mother. I have worked free of her fears that for years took residency in my own emotions. I really thought I had reached the end of that healing. Forgiveness and freedom, what more could there be? This past Mother’s Day I learned there was one thing more … love.
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. [1 John 3:2 NIV]
When my mother left this world and entered the presence of our Lord Jesus, she was healed. The wounds which dominated her life on earth were healed. I know that when I enter His presence, I too shall be completely and finally healed. I also know that I will be able to look my mother in the eyes and say, “I love you,” and for the first time truly mean it.
Forgiveness. Freedom. Love. It is found in knowing Christ Jesus.
Father, tell my mother I love her, and that I look forward to the day when I can hold her and tell her myself. Amen.
