Strength of Simple Faith

I've always cried when I thought of the simple faith that my mother has shown both my brother and me, and how strength often comes through hard trials. She always thought in simple terms and never complicated things through long explanations or analysis. Even though she did not attend church often, there were always books at the home about God and the Bible to be read when we were little. I still remember the book of Bible stories that seemed warm and familiar once I started attending a small, nondenominational church while in middle school.

Her brother died unexpectedly, and her mother died of cancer not far in time from one another. Yet, it wasn’t until my father, her husband of 23 years, died unexpectedly in 1997, that I saw her faith in God tested. It was as if she was stripped bare. It was through this, I saw her true strength. It was through this, I saw that simple-minded faith in God and believing in the everlasting protection He provides would make even someone stripped bare an over comer.

I was an ocean away in Germany, serving in the U.S. Army when this happened. My brother received a hardship discharge right out of boot camp to be there for her at home. I had no idea, though, that this would be the beginning of a battle that she would come through victorious. She did tell me that she would never have me give up what all I had gained through the military. One thing she made clear was that she wanted to visit me in Germany while I was still stationed there. She still made time to smile. All of the years that she made me laugh with sarcastic wit were not halted by grief.

When I was serving in Sarajevo, I got a call. This was early 1998. Mom asked, as if she had to have my permission, to date again. I had tears of joy in my eyes, although she couldn’t see them. I told her she was still alive and that she should be happy to find love again.

Mom, my aunt, and my grandmother on my father’s side came to visit me in Germany in the summer of 2001. Her very best friend in the world had cancer and was lying on her death bed. Mom just knew she would be back before this friend passed on, though, and she was right as usual. This was the first time she had been out of the United States. And oh, did she love the Swiss Alps as we went to visit the town of Lucerne. It was great to see her smile again. But, I hadn’t seen anything yet.

I went home on leave and noticed a glint in her eye that I hadn’t seen in a very long time. That’s when I started to see again that she was in love. The story still makes me cry, but it is something that only God could have seen coming, or perhaps my mother’s best friend. On her death bed, I learned, her best friend looked at her, then at her own husband and told them to take care of one another when she is gone. Both her husband and my mother were healed from their grief, and what healed it: why, love, of course.

My mother isn’t much when it comes to many words of faith, but she has been an example of the type of faith that even death couldn’t conquer. I will strive to live in that faith that she has shown me. She has shown me in her life the meaning of Yahveh Yireh, Yahveh Rapha, Yahveh Ori, and that El Yashiv (God restores).



This was written for a Mother's Day Makeover contest hosted by a local Christian radio station.