Today is move-in day to the Assisted Living home for my folks. My brother and I will bring over the final (heavy!) items while the folks go to the admissions meeting. Phones/computer/TV will all be hooked up tomorrow. I have a long check list of things to do. In the midst of all this, of course, there is the sadness of leaving an old life. The focus must shift to the adventures of the new.
To that end, as the folks and I were playing Scrabble last night, I asked Mom if she even had a dress I could pack. I'd brought their clothes over the day before, but found no dress.
"What will I need a dress for?" she asked.
"Bingo! Can't you just picture the other people's faces when you walk in dressed to the nines for Bingo? They will all wonder how for all these years they thought Bingo was a casual event!"
Mom told me where the once terribly expensive dress she had bought might be hung. She had agonized over the cost back then, which was the most she'd ever spent on a dress. I found it, along with two others she'd forgotten she'd had. They were gorgeous! I brought them down to her, and Dad told her she must bring those fabulous dresses.
"Now you are ready for any event they throw at you!" I said.
"And your father will come in his tshirt and shorts," she told me.
I turned to Dad. "Don't you have any nice dress outfit?"
He did not.
"Oh, you aren't going to show up like some piece of trash next to this!?" I cried, holding up Mom's exquisite dress.
"If the event calls for it, I will go buy an outfit," he assured me.
Mom and I chuckled all evening, thinking of her showing up to Bingo in that stupendous dress. I hope she really does. Sometimes, you have to shake up the routine. Nothing remains the same here on earth for very long, much as we all love the familiar and the routine. The only thing that is unchanging is God, and He is the source of strength and comfort in the midst of the turbulent seasons of life for that very reason. When all else around us is shifting, God remains, and He is holding our hand tightly with an eternal grip.
Praying for your family as you make this transition.
ReplyDeleteWoman! Word you continue to always have the message from God that I am in need of hearing!!! Day after day..I have prayed for your Monday ministry, not putting 2+2 together...you're there and not there:)...but the babies have beenparayed for as have you:)
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