I don't know if I have ever posted something personal on this Blog. If so, it's been years. This will be very personal and a means to help grieve and mourn, and I don't know yet if I'll share this to social media.
Early this morning around 4:20, my brother called me to tell me Mom passed away earlier. We knew she was very sick due to heart failure that had progressed even further a few weeks ago causing her to have to go to Rehab in a Nursing Home. After my brother met with the Directors there about going to Palliative Care, while we weren't sure of course, we still thought she may have had weeks to months longer to live, so it was still a bit of a surprise. Mom was 93 years, 1 month, 17 days old.
Mom was born in 1930 and was the youngest of 3 sisters (her next oldest sister is still alive at age 97). She married my Dad in 1956, I was born in 1958, and my brother was born in 1962. My Dad was born in 1930 as well and passed away in 1980, and my Step-father passed away in 1992. Mom had some, shall we say, issues while my brother and I were growing up, but she always took care of us. Until near the end, I had a good childhood.
Mom was always closer to my brother. Shortly after my Step-father passed away (she was about 62 then), my brother built her a separate small home on his property in southern Maryland. She lived there and one other place in that area of Maryland for about 28 more years, when her and my brother moved to central Florida. Mom still lived in her own place at age 86. 2 or 3 years later they moved to southwest Florida and she moved in with my brother and his wife because her health was declining some.
Mom said she made a profession of faith in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as a teenager. My Dad was Jewish but celebrated commercial Christmas, and my Step-father was Roman Catholic. Mom did take us to a friend's Church occasionally, and taught us the mealtime and bedtime childhood prayers, but nothing more than that that I remember. In late 1986, despite some serious sins before and especially after, I believe I was born again and saved by the Person and Work of Christ. Being more aware of things by God's grace, I became concerned that Mom seemed to lack outward evidence of her profession of faith. One of them being that she didn't darken the doors of Church except to come to the one I was going to in Maryland, a couple of times for special services. But since I have been a Christian, she's always said she believed Christ died on the cross for her sins.
I found out last year from her and my brother, that she wanted to be cremated when she died, and as of yesterday that hasn't changed. While I am a former pastor, I don't consider myself a bible scholar the way the term is often applied. While God's word does seem to say Jews and Christians were buried and only pagans were cremated, I don't recall any commands saying that Christians should not be. As for me and my wife, we won't be cremated, but I reckon it is not a sin to be. It seems more and more Christians are being cremated perhaps due to the increased cost of funerals and burials.
My Mom lived a full life. My hope is that her profession of faith was the result of being born again and saved, and I hope I'll see her again one day in glory. But time will tell. Lord willing I'll be 65 next month :-).
Heb. 9:27-28 says: "And just as it is appointed unto man once to die, then the judgment. So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who eagerly wait for Him."
There is no limbo, no purgatory and no second chances after we die- death then judgment. It is my hope that you will see your sin before the thrice Holy God and that you're undeserving of heaven and salvation. But that Jesus the God-man shed His blood, died on that old rugged tree, and rose again, to pay the penalty of sins of those that are born again and believe.
To God be the glory!
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