It has been in my kitchen on the counter now for almost 3 years unexplored, one of the last tangible items left after her passing over 30 years ago.
So much else that she touched, loved, created, cared for and invested herself in has, like her body passed on. But this little box remains.
When the dust has settled thirty years past my own passing, what will remain?
What will be my own legacy?
As I open the box, the first item to present itself is a poem entitled 'Friendship'.
what follows is the plastic packet, now yellowed with age, that was in her wallet and contained her driver's license and a few precious photos.
after that are 3x5 cards neatly handwritten with each person's name and contact info.
Most cards have handwritten notes on significant dates: marriages, births etc.
Many of these names I recognize as the persons my mom invested her time and life into nurturing and maintaining healthy and vibrant relationships with.
Behind these I find about 30-40 small cards, each one again handwritten and announcing the birth or adoption of a child. She had received these in the mail and kept them all.
Some blank 3x5 cards and I have reached the end of the box.
This box is my mom's legacy. It contains a lifetime of people, and time spent together and lives intertwined and shared with one another.
To me, in the midst of raising children, maintaining a household and all the hectic details that this involves, so much clamoring for my attention, my time and energy, this little box is a reminder that so much of what I am frantically preoccupied and focused on today, will, with the passing of time, fade into oblivion.
What will remain?
When I remember my mom, I remember a lot of things, but mostly not so much things
the food she made for us
the home she made a place to feel safe, cared for and loved
the way she spent time listening to me and interacting with me
the friends that filled her days with joy and companionship
the crafts she liked to make
If her life was measured by many of the standards considered by so many as valuable such as beauty, longevity or
what the world defines as significant accomplishment
she did nothing significant
But she lived in love to those God placed in her sphere
She never had the opportunity to travel abroad
or 'do minisry' across the sea
not to diminish this, it is a wonderful opportunity and should be taken if any possiblity exist to do so
but she lived in love where she was
she made time for those near her
she invested her life
not in ambition or esteem or such
but in quiet care
a listening ear
a helping hand
a sincere inquiry
a homemade meal
This is her legacy
To have believed the love of God for her through Jesus Christ
and to seek to love those in front of her by his grace alone and giving him all the glory
Oh, Lord
may I not be distracted from what is eternal and lasting by what is temporary and clamoring
Help me to find all my burning need met in you
right here
in this place
with these people
to be filled with your love and to love them as you have loved me
This is a lasting legacy
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind;
love does not envy;
love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own,
is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails...
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes:
- 1 Corinthians 13:3 NU-Text reads so I may boast. I Corinthians 13:1-8a, 13 NKJV
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