Family Reunion

I would venture to say everyone reading this devotional agrees that we are all longing for Jesus to come. With each sad or tragic news story that flashes across our airwaves in countries around the world, we long even more for Jesus to return and take us home.

Several years ago, we had a family reunion.

My immediate family, made up of Mom, Dad, and five children, has now multiplied to fifty-nine people and spans five generations.

Sadly, not everyone made it to the reunion.

Five family members are deceased.

My sister Margie died of a very rare neurological disease at age fifty.

She spent the last few years of her life in a nursing home because she needed help with all her physical and mental needs.

When we visited her, she was unable to communicate with us at more than a three-year-old’s level. She had to be hand-fed, and every evening, my parents went to feed her at supper time. Mom would sing hymns as she fed Margie, and many times, Margie would sing along. She remembered all the words and melodies.

That always amazed me. Though she could barely converse with others, she remembered the words to each hymn. My mother’s spiritual training and her Christian example remained in my sister’s memory. This reminded me of the promise found in Proverbs, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6, KJV). But also, I feel God gave her a gift—a gift of remembering His words.

Again, Solomon writes, “Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth” (Proverbs 5:7, KJV).

What a wonderful God we serve! He gives gifts and encouragement to us in ways we cannot imagine. Margie’s singing along with Mom was a gift to Mom.

It lightened the chore of caring for Margie each evening and made it a delight. Hearing Margie sing along with her was a source of great joy to my mother.

My sister’s faith in God remained with her for all her fifty years. Isn’t that amazing? I praise God for His goodness! And now I long for another family reunion—that grand reunion we will all enjoy in heaven, where there will be no more sickness or death.

Most of all, I long to be with Jesus.

Ginger Bell