Parable 9 - Knocking on Heaven's Door

Today, I want to share a deeply personal story with you. My mother died on this day several years ago. The events that led up to her death, and that day itself are locked into my memory. She had been suffering with a stiff neck for a number of years, the kind of stiffness that prevented her from turning her head to look to the side. She would have to turn her whole body. Compounding the difficulty, the last two years of her life, Mom had painful shingles on her neck and ear. And she had a wound on her foot that wouldn’t heal, even after a year of special wound care. Congestive heart failure made it difficult for her to breathe.

And yet she was cheerful, playful, helpful right up until the day she lost her balance and broke her hip. She survived that surgery but never recovered. She died about two weeks before her 90th birthday. Mom was hoping to take her five kids and their spouses on a trip to celebrate that milestone. It wasn’t to be in the cards.

All five of us kids joined her at the hospital on the day she was moved to hospice. Although her ability to speak had been taken, it seemed she could still understand us. It was rather sudden, even though a long time coming, when we switched our usual refrain of “You’ll get through this” to “It’s time to go home, Mom. It’s time to knock on the door of heaven.”

The hospice center was beautiful, and she was in a room large enough for all of us to sit with her. Since we would be there quite possibly for days, my sister and I went to the grocery store to buy supplies. Twenty minutes after we left for the store, we got a call to return as quickly as possible. Mom’s breathing had changed. Death was imminent.

We held her hand, stoked her forehead, and tried to comfort her the way she had nursed all of us through our own times of trial. We prayed, sang, and then asked all of those loved ones who had already gone before her to now welcome her into heaven and the arms of Jesus. Our dad was waiting for her. Mom’s mother and father were waiting for her, ready to welcome her home. Her three brothers, and her sister were waiting for her.

We asked another 20 or 30 people to welcome her. We savored saying all of these names out loud. And after about five minutes, the room was still. Mom had taken her last breath.

Even though we had deep sadness, there was also a profound peace. What better way could one depart from this world than with all of your children by your side, united in prayer, and asking for you to be welcomed into your heavenly home?

Meditation

Mom used to occasionally quote Shakespeare, “All’s well that ends well.” When we consider our scripture for today, it’s important to keep that in mind. When we knock, seek, and ask we can trust that our heavenly Father listens and gives us what we need. But the timing of it all is beyond our grasp. We had been praying that Mom’s shingles would be healed. It was difficult for her to lay on a pillow to rest. God took two years to answer that prayer, and there was a lot of suffering before it ended. It took her death to remove that pain.

We ask for many things—the end of war, famine, dishonesty, cruelty, lawlessness, greed, and poverty. We knock, we seek, but it can be hard to even imagine that the door is being opened. Our world is a broken place. Pain and devastation abound. It is easy to doubt God’s presence and promise to give us that which we need, that which we ask for, that which we beg for.

I like to remember my mom smiling, and laughing, even in her hardship. Perhaps the answer to her prayers came in a way cloaked by this world, but revealed in the next, yet nonetheless giving her the strength and peace she needed. Her prayers were answered in a way that inspired others and helped her to endure hardship.

It can seem confusing. A message of death bringing life is one that needs to be pondered. Lent is the perfect time to contemplate how God is working in your life. Go ahead, seek, knock, and ask. Our Lord is inviting you.

Water the seed and ask yourself...

What prayer am I asking of the Lord today?