Think about your hands and all they do for your family – the holding, the guiding, the craft making, the toy fixing, the meal making, the cleaning.
Now just what would you do with those hands for your family if you knew your time was limited? Would you hold their hands every chance you got? Would you make the very best meals you could to nurture their bodies? Would you sit down and write a letter with all of your hopes and dreams for them?
It is hard to imagine.
Let’s take a trip back to 1981. A young mother, Becky, is diagnosed with breast cancer. Her sweet son, Josh, is only 4 years old. She knows she will never see his first day of kindergarten. She will miss his first jump shot and his first home run. She will never know his first girlfriend or be there to discipline him for missing curfew. She won’t see him get his driver’s license and she can’t be there to take pictures as he leaves for Prom.
She won’t ever know his wife, wear a mother of the groom dress or dance with him to a sappy song on his wedding day. She won’t know her grandchildren.
But, maybe, because of Becky’s love for her son, Josh, her future grandchildren will know her.
It is now 2009. Josh is married. He and his wife Sharon are expecting their first child. The baby shower is this weekend. Josh’s Aunt Marsha calls him this past week. This is a conversation she has waited 25 years to have. She has a gift, from Josh’s mother, one that she made, for the new baby. Can she bring it to the shower this weekend?
Josh now knows what the gift is. His wife Sharon doesn’t, but she can see an extra spring in her husband’s step. She knows Becky must have been one extraordinary mother.
All those years ago, Becky used her hands to care for her family in one final way.
What is the gift?
To be continued……
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