Maxine

It's a summer day like many others, sunny and breezy and filled with the sound of construction trucks, the smell of blacktop being laid. I woke up to the noise of two humongous trucks practically driving in my room. The coffee was fresh, and the sleepies were plentiful in my head as I struggled to douse them with caffeine. Morning regularities progressed, trucks worked, and then I put on my black silk dress for the funeral. A funeral celebration for an absolutely spitfire, feisty, faithful, and adorable woman named Maxine. It's another day tick tocking away on the calendar. But it's also a frozen moment, a period of minutes and hours in which heaven and earth collide. It's a morning when people stare at the bright funeral arrangements full of pink daisies and red roses and wonder how exactly the woman that last Sunday perched her fragile, thin self on the second row on the right side of Maple Ridge Church could at this very second be lying whole, healed, and utterly flabbergasted at the feet of JESUS CHRIST.

Amazing, isn't it?

Maxine passed away last Friday after a fall in her kitchen that left her unable to recover. While her family is grieving heavily right now, they have peace and happiness knowing that Maxine is healthy. She suffered abundant physical pain in the last few years. Can you imagine how wondrous heaven's pain-free policy must seem to her right now? Her family said again and again at the funeral that Maxine loved her "precious Lord" more than anything, and that love led her to invest her life in the people around her. Even when she was in pain due to osteoporosis, she created homemade cards on her computer to send to people at church to encourage them. Opinionated, loyal, and always interested in others, she weekly called her sister in Memphis to catch up on life, attended church every Sunday to experience Christian fellowship and hug her friends, and kept an angel collection of over 200 figurines. I imagine these heavenly beings comforted her and made her smile each day.

When she passed away last Friday, I found myself dwelling on the last time I saw her. It was a week ago Sunday. Looking beautiful in her fashionable clothes and jewelry, though frail with a walker to guide her and her husband's steady arm always close by, Maxine worshipped Jesus. Did she know it was her last time to worship publicly with her church family? Did she know that her final days were ahead?

After church, Maxine turned to the row where my family sits. Right behind hers. She hugged my sister and I and complimented us on our dresses. Then she told us how beautiful she thought we were, and how she always loved to look at us and watch us on Sundays. We told her how beautiful SHE looked (and really, we meant it). Then her husband Jim took her arm and led her home. And several days later, Jesus took her arm and led her to her final home.

The funeral was an incredible testimony to a life well-lived for Jesus and for his glory, not spent on selfish ambition or wasteful activity, but spent on others. Spent befriending others. Loving others. Taking care of her children and grandchildren. Encouraging and complimenting others.

I found myself journaling when she died, pondering how I might spend my last day on earth. If I knew it was my last 24 hours to live, what would I do? Today at the funeral I realized that though this is an interesting and worthwhile question to ask, the better question is this. Knowing that you DON'T know today is your last day, how will you live? Maxine didn't know. She lived for years never knowing when she would die. But she lived those years AS IF death was imminent. She lived in the moment, for others, as a radiant sparkle in a dark world.

So many people at the funeral testified to the influence Maxine had on their lives. Her children told story after story about how much their mother meant to them and to everyone who knew her.

It makes me glad that we go to funerals. Glad to celebrate what should be only tears and loss. Maxine's death was a great loss to a world that loved her. Yet, when her savior pulled her into his arms last Friday, the purpose of her life was complete. She had lived for his glory and died a "good and faithful servant." People remember her example and will be challenged to spend their last days in the same manner. They will want to praise the God who Maxine loved and lived for, who she devoted her life to.

It's an ordinary day passing away, but extraordinary people make them timeless. Maxine was an extraordinary woman serving an even more extraordinary God. What an honor to have known her.

Cinnamon rolls :)

Nothing is better than thinking there are no home-baked goods in sight and suddenly realizing you stashed a bag of cookies and bars in the freezer several weeks ago that is STILL there. Yes, ma'am, good stuff. Nothing better. I just found scotchies and chocolate chip cookies in the freezer, and I'm a happy girl.

Except... okay, I might have lied. The one thing that's better is homemade cinnamon rolls in the oven baking and smelling absolutely heavenly upon consciousness. Can you say HAPPINESS?! Which, luckily, happened today! I made cinnamon rolls yesterday afternoon and stuck them in the fridge. My good mother baked them first thing this morning. Waking up to, "Brooke, the cinnamon rolls are almost ready" is just an invitation to have an excellent day handed to me on a silver platter. If you want to surprise a family member with your kindness, borrow my recipe for "Jim's Cinnamon Rolls" and watch them drool as the rolls rise. (Note: A bread maker is necessary for this recipe.) You will earn your family's love and respect with one bite.

I got to take some down to our new neighbor from Wisconsin, and I'm pretty sure we'll have her on our doorstep in several hours begging for the recipe.... they're that good. Good for sharing with neighbors and good for eating with coffee as you read your Bible in the morning. What a wondrous thing homemade breakfasts do for our world....

A Finicky Forecast

Two hours ago the sun was bright, the sky dabbled in clouds, the air hot and heavy.... a summer Saturday demanding A/C and an ice cold pop. Yet weather changes rapidly, as I often forget. At the moment the light coming in the window has dimmed, forcing me to flip light switches all over the house in the middle of the day; the trees are being blown around forcefully, and a storm is eminent. Not a promising evening to view the Maple Grove fireworks. Yet, in another two hours, maybe this will all pass and the sun will return in its summertime splendor. How interesting meteorology is, and how akin to life! Rough patches of weather and veritable "storms" pop up on our weather screens constantly, day to day almost, and yet as soon as they come, they often disappear. The sun comes out, the flowers bloom larger than before, and we forget the storms ever existed.

I'm thankful today for a God who sticks around no matter what the weather forecast. For a God who knows the weather forecast for tomorrow, the next day, and the next year.... in the U.S., China, Antarctica, and in every other place. His power surpasses the wind and the waves. I love how in Matthew 14 Jesus, weary from a day of healing people and feeding thousands - and from the news of the cruel death of his close friend John the Baptist - awakes from a much-needed nap to calm a storm. It came out of nowhere. His disciples freaked out. The last thing Jesus needed was a reason to wake up and do one more thing... he'd done so much already that day! But the Son of God awoke and spoke to the wind and the waves. Instantly the storm ended, and his disciples were amazed.

Whether you're experiencing a storm or the carefree, happy moments of summer, always remember that there is who controls the weather and all of life's victories and disappointments. As someone at work said yesterday, "Everything happens for a reason. I know it sounds cheesy, but I believe it!" We can't control meteorology, but God will use it to water the crops, tan the sunbathers, and do a million other things. Same with life.