My Mother came to the Cafe' where I am a waitress. It was a very busy day and I was rushing from table to table serving. When I got to my Mother's table she told me she had a gift for me. I leaned over as she fastened a necklace around my neck. I couldn’t see it but my fingers felt it's beauty. Because we were so busy it was quite some time before I could slip away and see this gift my Mother had given me. When I looked in the mirror my breath was taken by the beauty of the sapphire and diamonds on a gold collar. So I spent the rest of the day with my hair pulled back in a ponytail, cap on, apron on, waiting on tables, clearing tables, washing dishes, and all the while wearing the most beautiful sapphire and diamond necklace I have ever seen.
This scene in my mind of wearing this beautiful necklace while being a servant is like a parable of my Christian experience. When I looked up the meaning of sapphires in the Bible I found this quote, “God comforts His people with the promise that while they are suffering now, He will eventually restore them beyond anything they could ever expect or imagine.” Isaiah 54:11 “O thou afflicted with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.”
When I am not at the Cafe' being a waitress I am at the home of my dear Mother in law who is in the final days of her life. We sit around her bed surrounding her with love. She is barely able to speak now. She still bless us with her smile and every word she utters remind us that she loves us and knows that we love her. My heart is often squeezed with sorrow I don't want to say, “Good bye,” but I know the curtain is closing on her life here with us. But I also know because of Jesus things are not always what they seem. We grieve but not without hope, not without the promise that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
“'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:55 I am the waitress wearing a sapphire and diamond necklace that reminds me of the promise that God has given me are more than anything I could ever expect or imagine. I am one who sits with tear washed eyes watching at the bedside while one whom my heart loves draws her final breath. But with eyes of faith I see beyond the veil, I see the Lord of love standing to greet her with out stretched arms.
Lord Jesus, thank You for the gifts of grace I could never earn.
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