Many days over the last three years, Mom would burst into the chorus "When we all get to Heaven WHAT A DAY OF REJOICING THAT WILL BE!" On Sunday, July 24, 2022, that yearning became a reality. Then three weeks later on Sunday, August 14, 2022, I took this photo of the GLORIOUS sunrise on her FIRST BIRTHDAY IN HEAVEN! She transitioned from finishing the race as an almost 83 year old to brand new eternal in glory! Truly Incredible!
Today 8/24/22 at our home, Beacon Hall, I am taking in the weight of the last month since she entered her true home and her eternal Sabbath rest. It has been so beautiful and so hard. We are so sad and so relieved. We have experienced deep laughter and long sobs and groans.
Over the last month I have been slowly gazing at and pondering a spectacular gift of grace that the Father, Son and Spirit gave to our family on the day of July 28, 2022, on the morning of Mom's burial service in Conyers, Georgia. I want to share it today as a testimony to who He is as the Lord of ALL time and the Ancient of Days and the Eternal King of Glory.
My Father, James Edward Johnson, died on April 22, 1985. Because it was not a financial priority for our Mom, who had just become a single parent of a 17 year old and an 11 year old, she waited to pay for the joint gravestone for many years. She saved and paid a little at a time and when it was finally paid off she asked for it to be installed at Green Meadow Cemetery in Conyers, GA. Because there had not been a gravestone all those years it was difficult to find the plot in the cemetery and it was not a place that our family really went to remember. As a result my Kelly family of 5 had never been there together to visit the Cemetery. In July of 2014, Damon was released from his position as High School Pastor and our family prayerfully decided to take some time away to pray and process together. The five of us and Mom went to St. Simon's Island together for a week. During that week away Mom found out that the Gravestone was ready and had been installed at Green Meadow. Mom asked Damon and me if we would please take her by the Cemetery on our drive home to Knoxville, TN, through Georgia. On Sunday we decided to first drive over from St. Simon's Island to Tallahassee to have our last visit with our dear friend and pastor, Ed Hague, and see he and his family for a few hours. As we left there our van broke down and we had to unexpectedly spend the night in the Macon area for our van to be repaired. This meant that we were not headed through the Conyers area until Monday. It felt like an "interruptive" stop off, honestly, in what was already a very heavy time for our family. But we wanted Mom to get to see the gravestone and all of us to visit the spot together. Because we had never visited my Father's gravesite together we took a few of photos that morning in a brief stop. Here are two of them:
Fast forward 7 years.
Over the 8 weeks that Mom was bedridden I was recalling many things from our lives together and as May passed into June and then into July, I was remembering that July of 2014 when we were all together during a really difficult time that impacted all 6 of us. But it was not until after Mom passed away on Sunday, July 24, and I began interacting with the logistics regarding her burial in Conyers that I started to recall the visit of 2014. I had placed it in the back of my mind until over the night following her beautiful Funeral service on Wednesday, July 27, I was prompted in the night by the Holy Spirit, to find the above photos when I awoke. Early in the morning after waking, I immediately got out of bed and went to my computer and when I opened my photo storage program and went to July 2014 I was in complete shock when I saw the date stamp of the two above photos. They were taken on Monday, JULY 28, 2014 and it was the EXACT date 7 YEARS LATER THAT VERY DAY AT 11:30AM that she would be buried in that exact place right next to our Father!!! I shared with Damon and just sat in complete shock and astonishment. How could it be the exact day? (I later realized upon more close examination that evening that the time stamp showed they were taken at 11:13am and 11:20am - so we were literally there at the EXACT time she would be buried!)
The family and friends who were there with us on July 28, 2022, were used by God to anchor us to the truth reminding us that HE IS LORD OF ALL TIME AND ALL LIFE AND DEATH! We are SO thankful for all who were praying for us and all who were present with us. Seen and unseen body enfolding us as we were grieving! (Thank you, Rachel Chaney for being present with a heart of love and using your gifts as a photo-storyteller on this important day in our family HIStory!)
I am only at the very, very beginning of processing in my own heart how this story impacts me SOOOO DEEPLY. I believe it is because the 57 days while Mom was bedridden were for me the constant tension of watching her and wondering from moment to moment if she would be living or dying. In those days my brain and heart were barraged with questions of "when" that I kept taking to the Lord and longing to be held by His tender heart in the WAITING. The grace of this 7/28 TIMING has been such an intimate reminder to me of who He has been to Aurelia Anne Johnson as her husband for 37 years (He promises to be a husband to the widow) and how compassionately He carried her and saw her in every single detail of her need from April 22, 1985 when Jimmy was buried there to the moment when she was buried by his side on July 28, 2022. An unseen covering of seamless and unfailing nearness and love from Father, Son and Spirit. He saw to it. Jehovah Jireh. He saw her. El Roi. His heart for her knew every hair on her head and every breath she would take. Sovereign King, Rule and Reign. Fill us with increased AWE and worship of you at the intricacies of your heart for us. "He crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies...." Psalm 103:4
So today on this day one month after her last breath on earth, I recall how recently on the early morning of August 14, 2022, we CELEBRATED her first HEAVENLY BIRTHday and we continue to rehearse the truth of our Better Hope that she is living and experiencing this very moment!
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