Mom’s Abundant Life

By Kathleen Cooke –

It must have been well over 100 degrees and the car lurched and sputtered as my dad pulled it to the side of the desert road that summer’s day. Our family bright yellow station wagon had given out and we were several miles from the next town and gas station. There wasn’t any air conditioning to begin with in that old car but at least when it was moving we had a breeze.

My dad got out and soon hitched a ride with a passing truck and I was left in the care of my mother and two older brothers not knowing how long it would be before we saw him again. There was one jug of water, few cars on the road passing, and not much to keep us occupied as we sat there sweating on that road just outside Las Vegas, Nevada in 1960.

My older brother, Richard, who was 11 was out of the car immediately picking up rocks and throwing them at anything he could find for a target. My middle brother, Robbie, lay on the back seat of the car. He had been born without a valve in his heart and the doctors had done experimental surgery on him when he was born sewing a pigs valve into his heart hoping he would live 6 months. He was 6 and having a hard time breathing as he lay in the back seat of the car that day. I began to get pretty worried and started to cry as the fear and uncertainty crept in.

My mom had been raised in the traditions of the Catholic Church but it wasn’t until my older brother was born and my parents had moved to Las Vegas in 1949 that my mom was introduced to a living and vibrant personal relationship to God. Not the Jesus she had seen in pictures or in sculpture hanging on the cross growing up, but a living God that had triumphant over death and was accessible at any moment. She had grown up all her life knowing about her Maker, but now she was in constant communication with Him. Having a sick child, living in a dry desert town on a month to month paycheck keeps you on your knees.

When I began to cry that day I knew she too was just as worried as I was and maybe more, but her peace that day I will never forget as she held me in her lap, hugged me close, and said, “Kathy, God’s taken us this far, He’s going to take us all the way home. Just watch and see.  

I know many women, moms, and grandmothers, are in the midst or are facing unfathomable storms, trials, and challenges. God hasn’t moved, He is still here and He will continue to be here to take you through any situation or uncertainty. He’s only a breath away.

We did make it home very late that night. My brother died a few months later. My parents are both with the Father in Heaven and I know some day I will get to rejoin them there – home at last for good!

Jesus came that we might have life (right now on earth) abundantly, (not always easy or perfect) but abundant. He’s going to take you all the way Home – watch and see.

Kathleen Cooke, co-founder of CookePictures.com and The Influence Lab where she publishes a monthly newsletter InfluenceLab/Women.com. Find out more at kathleencooke.com, or reach her on Twitter @kathycooke.