The Very Best Gifts

Thoughts from Kim...

Tomorrow, it will be one year since the doctors told us they couldn't do any more to help Mom beat her cancer. Though we have peace knowing she is in Heaven, this year has been difficult for us as we have worked through our grief and forged ahead without her.

For me, I still look for Mom behind the wheel of every little red Saturn I see on the road. I can't seem to make myself take her phone number off my cell phone and I have picked up my phone to call her what seems like a million times. I miss doing crossword puzzle races with her and having her beat me at Upwords. How I crave a pot of her homemade chicken and noodles!

Yesterday, I walked into church and saw Luke 2:13-14 on the welcome screen. "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." I cried as memory carried me back to my mother's lap where, as a child of 3 or 4, Mom helped me memorize Luke 2:1-14. It was so important to Mom that Christ be the focus of our Christmas and before we opened our presents with her each year, our family quoted these verses together.

So much has changed, and yet, as we search for new family traditions to ease the pain of celebrating without her, I know there won't be one present opened before our family says Luke 2:1-14 together.

There might not be a dry eye in our home, but it will be a good Christmas. And I suspect the memories we each have of Mom will be the very best gifts "under our tree."