May He bring You HOME Rejoicing....

 

2022 moves toward the final hours.  Though this photo was taken in August 2019 here at Beacon Hall by my gifted friend, Rachel Chaney, it is the photo I am thinking of tonight.  Often we would eat lunch outside and my Mom, Anne, would enjoy sweeping our patio before going in to take her afternoon nap from 1-3pm.  Our border collie, Lacy, was always in the mix and she also loved afternoon napping with Grannie.  I miss them both.  During 2022 in the month of July, both of these precious ones finished their race, only 2 weeks apart.  It still is so surreal to take it in.

On Sunday afternoons during the past 2 + years since my Mom was not attending in person church services, Damon and I would lead a service for her in our home.  Each week we went through the liturgy together from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals and we would take turns reading Scripture aloud and singing hymns as Damon played the guitar.  We would always close with these words:

"May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you; may he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm; may he bring you home rejoicing: at the wonders He has shown you; may he bring you home rejoicing: once again into our doors."

I can still hear the sound of her voice saying it aloud with me.  A blessing.  

As I close the calendar year and step into 2023, the first year of my existence without her present in this life, I think of her smile and ponder her bold proclamation from her place in Heaven; her true HOME.  She is now a part of that cloud of witnesses and I think of her saying "May He bring you HOME rejoicing...."  I don't know how many more years I will live, but I know that the legacy she leaves me and the encouragement of a finished race trusting Jesus and calling out to him is so rich.  I believe she will be there when I come HOME.

Thank you, again, to all of you who supported and prayed and loved our family so well as we journeyed with her.  Here's to the peace of Christ going with each of us as we turn the page into a new year and a new chapter.  To God be the Glory!