Only here for a little while,

Another one of those texts came today that kind of shook my little world.   It’s exactly that- my world is quite little. I have flown over the world and looked down and can’t see anything or anyone except white clouds and perhaps some blue color that is supposed to be the ocean. When they tell me to make sure I understand how to pull my cushion of my seat out so I can use it for a floatation device, I kind of tune them out. If we are going down in water, I am not worried about floating. I will be fish bait. The world I live in looks pretty small from up there. So when something happens in my world, I realize that it’s my little world that gets shaken.  The text was rather expected just not today.  The text reminded me that life is short and we are only here for a little while.

I totally loved this women. I remember her from way back when I was a kid. Her son was in my class, and so I knew her as Kevin’s mom, but in later years she had become a good friend. We were in  a small group with another son of hers and got to be very close. Through cancer, and walking Randy home, Ramona got to be a special friend.  Her quiet unassuming spirit was a bit different than mine. She always had a kind word, a spirit of Jesus serving others and I enjoyed talking with and being with her.
Probably one of the special moments were when I mailed her a card. I would send her cards on her son’s birthday after Randy went home to be with the Lord. You bury your parents, not your children. He was young, in his 30’s and with four kids. You bury old people; it’s just so unnatural to bury the young. I sent her valentines, cards of remembering and although I knew it was special, when she would thank me, I knew it was more than just thanks; it was from the heart.

Tonight at Cowboy Church I sang a song dedicated to her, ” Just inside the Pearly Gates”. It’s times like this, and there have been way too many this year, that the tears come and begin running down the cheeks, (I say the eyes spring a leak) and singing is a challenge. , In my hearts imagination,  I can see her hugging her big lug of a son and Haven, her husband throwing his arms around her tiny little frame. Well, we don’t know what we will look like, so I just pretend they will be what I am thinking at the moment.   The song begins, “I will meet you in the morning, just inside the Pearly gates” . That’s a promise I made as I sang that song. A promise that I will be faithful. It probably won’t be Ramona I search for first in heaven, as I have a son and several other babies waiting for me. But it’s the Ramona’s in life that kept me focused on what’s important.  And as I grow up, or rather age, I pray that somewhere along the line, I can be a Ramona to someone else.

It’s an odd saying we say, “rest in peace”. I don’t know it’s history but I know what I understand it to mean. Ramona was always working and always serving. Now is her time to rest at Jesus feet and just smile. And smile, she could and did do a lot of.