Postlude

Funny, I thought I was done with this particular chapter - or group of chapters. We are back home in Maui, getting settled into our new place. But tonight, in the middle of the unpacking, we are packing once again.

You see, my mother died. Ironically, when I was noting the passing of one year since having a home with some security, my mother was passing from this world into the arms of her saviour. So, we are going back to the mainland tomorrow to celebrate her life with friends and family, then we'll return home here to our little island in the Pacific.

But I'm okay - at least as okay as one is in the face of losing a parent. In fact, my tears are equally balanced by a sense of joy and gratitude - not just for my mom, that she is without pain or worries any more, even though that would be enough to keep a smile on my face. I am blown away by the wisdom and tenderness and compassion of our Lord.

I spent a lot of time the past year crying out to God - and many mere mortals, as demonstrated in blogs - as to why we were going through what we were going through. And now it is so clear. He did it for me.

My mom and I have had some rough times in recent years, but this summer, they all seemed to fade away. I got to spend time with her. She was so tender and sympathetic with our plight, and genuinely thrilled for us when we returned a month ago. During our time in what we then viewed as our exile, I was able to complete a novel I had been writing for -literally - years. Mother read it, loved it, then kept bugging me about when it would be published and when was the sequel coming out!

I ask myself, would I have finished the book had we not been in that position? Likely not. Would we have spent that kind of time with her and the rest of our family had we not been forced to? Certainly not.

God is so good.

Mother was planning a cruise out here to Hawaii, but she had been becoming increasingly confused of late. I think that scared her and prevented her from making those plans firm. I praise God for sparing her the loss of her sharp mind. I praise Him further that my Mother's family has been spared the pain of watching their Matriarch slip slowly away, losing bits of herself as she faded.

So, I end this series of blogs with one blog more than I intended. Seems right. Because what I intend is never, ever better than what God designs.