Purple Mountains Majesty

I taught my art class at the nursing home in the morning yesterday. All the while, I was thinking of my mom in the ICU 1,000 miles away in upstate NY. One of the residents in my class even had the same name as my mother. My brother and one sister are with Mom....but I was not. I was supposed to be on standby...to cover needs when the other sister went home. But I felt a great restlessness. My little art class drew hearts for Valentine's day, which incidentally, is my mother's birthday. Today.

I raced home and threw suitcases in the car. I called hubby and told him I had to go. I had to get to my mom. He told me (bless him) it was the right thing to do. I was on the road in half an hour. I drove all day, listening to Christian radio stations, and singing along. A few songs filled my heart with so much emotion that I would begin sobbing. NOT GOOD at 70 mph.

As the sun was setting, I noticed that the Blue Ridge Mountains were not blue. They were purple. I have never really seen purple mountains. And the fields of the Shenandoah valley were amber. I thought of America's song,

America the Beautiful

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!


When darkness fell, and it was two hours past my dinner time, I stopped at a hotel. I was exhausted, and starving. I called a local pizza place to deliver a salad, and checked my email, and facebook posts. There was an outpouring of LOVE by people praying for me and for my mom, and my dad. Many were people I have never met face to face. Just friends who know me from my blogs, or books. Even one of the "saves" from the abortion mill was praying, and thanked me for helping her make the "right decision about her baby." She wanted me to call the moment I got home.

My mom is doing well. She is still in ICU, but she is smiling, and joking, and chipper according to my brother. I can't wait to see her today, and kiss her dear face. And comfort my Dad who I know has been so worried.

I fell asleep last night, deeply asleep, dreaming of those purple mountains, God's grace, and the crowning good of brotherhood.
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1 Peter 5:7 

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Philippians 2:3 

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Ephesians 4:29 

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

John 3:16 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1 Peter 1:23 

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

1 Thessalonians 2:13

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

Isaiah 2:4 

He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.