Song of Solomon 8:6

“For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone.” (Ps. 91:11-12)

It is difficult to lose your mother. It is even more difficult when there are family problems/relationship issues to deal with at the same time. 1990 was a year of strange happenings for me. It was a year never to be forgotten, a year of fearful change and devastating loss.

I have read in the book of Genesis that it took 20 years for Joseph’s dream to come to pass! That length of time does not seem to be a problem to God at all, but I’m sure that, for Joseph, it was very hard to learn to live all those years without his family and especially without the father who loved him. It had to be horrible to be incarcerated for a crime he did not commit and to live with the rejection of his evil brothers who sold him into Egypt as a slave! Yet, in all of Joseph’s trouble, God helped him in unusual ways and even brought promotion in the midst of despair and loneliness!

In 1990 my mother had a stroke in the brain, which left her in a comatose state. We did not arrive at her bedside until 2 days after this happened. By the time we arrived, all I could do was pray and cry! The worst part of it was that she had lost the ability to speak. To not hear my mother speak was worse than anything I could have imagined. She was a talker and always lit up like a new candle when she and I visited, something that had not happened very often in the year of 1989. I will have to say that the Hand of God was very much with us at her bedside. We prayed together: God, please don’t leave her in this coma. I can’t bear this, I said….being painfully truthful. Please God, either take her home or bring her out of this coma so she can speak!” About 45 minutes later the nurse came to me in the waiting room, “Are you Sondra?” she said. “Yes, I am” I replied. She motioned to me to follow her. “Come back to the ICU. Your mother is out of her coma and she is calling your name.” The nurse’s words were like an echo of thunder to me. They shouted down through all the years of my faith! I was laughing and crying at the same time because God had so quickly answered my prayers.

I stood by my mother’s bedside holding her hand. She asked me where she was. She asked me if I was “still her daughter?”….. I saw white light manifested all around her bed in that ICU unit. I had never seen anything like that before and knew that my mother had been far away in her comatose state. I knew the light that shone around her bed was God’s light, perhaps the presence of Angels. I knew God was touching her and bringing her back to me in answer to my prayer. The blood began to recede from her brain and she began to get stronger daily. In a period of 2 months she was out of the hospital and staying with my sister. She did not regain the ability to walk and her speech was slow, but she was alive and could speak and knew what was going on.

I needed time with her before she left this earth. I needed to say some things to her and to ask her some things also. In the weeks and months ahead I made audio tapes and sent to her. She spoke on the tapes and sent them back.

It was a time we both needed to have together. It was a time of promises being answered . …promises I had waited on for many years. In the year that my mother lived from the time God brought her out of her coma until the day she died a year later, much took place between the two of us. A healing had begun in my heart and I knew that too would take time.

My relationship with my mother had always been difficult. It had caused me to cry out to God for understanding over the period of my lifetime. This part was sure: I loved her. Above all else, I really did love her and my prayer for God to bring her out of the coma was prayed because I loved her and Also because seeing her comatose was more than I could bear, I truly believed. God gave me a dose of His Amazing Grace at that moment in my life. It was 15 years ago and in many ways, seems like only yesterday. But in that 15 years I have learned that Love is the main ingredient that makes up God. He cares so much about Love and about our learning to walk in it, live in it, flow in it and grow in it! He cares about the smallest infraction in the area of love ! He cares about every wound, every injustice and He has made forgiveness possible because of His Blood shed on Calvary!

God’s word says that “Love is as strong as Death…” (Song of Solomon 8:6) How true those words are! I have seen Love prolong life many times. I have seen prayers answered because the motive behind them was deep love. I have seen people go into Emergency Rooms who should have died, but because of those who loved them praying prayers of love and mercy, they did not die but lived! There are times when every thing points to the natural outcome of the matter: death… ..and yet….God answers prayer. God honors Love. He invented it. He understands it. He sent it to us. He wants us to have it for each other. It is the only thing that exists that is “strong as death”. Love outlives even the grave. It goes on Forever and cannot be extinguished if it is really love. It is His Gift. His Promise. Love causes the walls of cold indifference to crumble and sets the coldest heart on fire. It is eternal, as strong as death, and yet as light and delicate as a baby’s sigh.

I saw it in the light that surrounded my mother’s bed. I saw it in her face. I held it in her hand. Love is the one thing I want more of and that I will continue to seek. Yet the best part of Love is never keeping it but giving it away.

It is the only thing, God’s word tells us, that will never fail us when all else does. It includes forgiveness, something Joseph had to have for his family. It includes compassion and mercy, something we need more of in the body of Christ.

Prayer: Father, we ask in Jesus’ name that you would intervene in our lives and help us to be filled with your Love, that we might not become a clanging cymbal or sounding brass! Help us to pray before we say and to become Encouragers of each other so that we might be able to reach out to the emotionally and spiritually needy. Lord, look beyond our faults and see our need and please help us to do the same with others! You, Lord, are God of all Creation! Please deliver us from the evil of unbelief, doubt and fear and let the light of your love, once again, shine through the darkness of discouragement in the lives of your people . Let love live in families! Let it Rise to the top like cream! Loose forgiveness and healing among families at this hour God, for without you none of us can do anything. Even Your Very Word says that is so! (John 15) Please heal the wounded hearts of your people Lord. There is No other Way besides You. There is no other answer. The families of this nation need You Jesus. Help them to truly know you and the Love you have created. Help us as families Lord to OPEN the GIFT that is YOU! Amen.

Article is copyrighted by Sondra Stallman.
May not reprint without permission from author.