June 16, 2023 - A Saint

     After dealing with a rash and lots of itching this week, I have a much greater appreciation for my mother.  She was a saint.
     Mom had a rare blood disorder that manifested itself in a rash and itching pretty much all over her body.  She had doctors from Nashville to Mayo Clinic treat her, but the disease finally took her.  The relief from the itching never came until she was given her new body in heaven.
     When we see pictures of her in the last months of her life they remind us of what she went through.  As I look back on the last day of her life I believe she was one of the few people who ever told Jesus that she was coming home.  Now! 
     Mom was a saint beyond how she handled her illness.  We’d all like to think that our moms were saints.  And the way they had to deal with some of us, maybe they were!
     Mom had the holy triad in my mind of what it takes to be a saint.  We’d think faith, hope, and love.  Mom had those.  I am thinking more of giver, servant, and prayer.
     As I have shared, Mom was the best giver I have ever known.  She gave of what she had and she gave of herself. 
Mom had the heart of a servant.  Jesus said that the greatest among us would be servant of all.  She was that, too.
     Mom was a prayer warrior.  You rarely heard her pray verbally.  She did what Jesus said.  She went into the “closet” and prayed alone. 
     If Daybreak donned people saints, I have a feeling that we would have included her.  Saint Norma.   Mom would have rejected the notion that she was a saint.  All believers who truly could be cast as saints would deny it.
     I don’t think Dad would have made the list.  Good man, as faithful as anyone you’d ever know.  But I am way too much like him to know that neither of us would qualify. 
     Who might you consider a saint in your world?  You’d be blessed if it was one of your parents, maybe doubly blessed it could be your spouse.
     If I was looking to put some “money” in my “husband account,” I’d say Teresa is a saint.  But if I said that I’d get some razing from some folks rather close to me.
     So I won’t say she’s a saint.  I’ll just think it.