NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

April 9

This month’s devotionals were written in grateful collaboration with my mother-in-law, who passed away a couple weeks ago.

Scripture focus: Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Proverbs 3:7-8 NIV

If you only listened to Marion’s stories about herself, you might get the wrong impression. You might think she’s kind of clumsy – which would be true enough – she did have an awful lot of falls starting at a relatively young age. Pete still remembers as a young boy, playing in his basement and hearing his mom come tumbling down the steps. Landing at the bottom, she said to him in a reassuring tone, “Don’t worry, mommy just fell down the steps and broke her arm. I’m fine!”

Her self-deprecating sense of humor taught me that she never wasted time trying to make herself look smart or superior. She let her actions speak for themselves. Our middle son Scott loved costumes. He was obsessed with Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker and all the G. I. Joes. Halloween was his absolutely favorite holiday. As a modern mother, I thought that going to the store and buying a cheap costume at an outrageous price was a perfectly good choice. Scott disagreed. So every year at Halloween, he’d ask his Nana to make him his costume – no cheap imitations for this kid.

Not only did she make him the perfect costume to his specification, she made them from scratch – without a pattern! And the most amazing thing of all – she delighted in doing so. The year she made the G. I. Joe outfit was the toughest. It’s hard to tell from a 2 inch tall plastic guy just how long the vest should be made to fit a four year old. When the costume was finished, she rushed over to our house eager to present Scott with the fruit of her labor.

Scott tried it on. He walked out for us to inspect it. “Nana,” he began with an unmistakable hesitation, “You did a nice job on this costume. I like the pants and the belt and the helmet and the gun holster. But there’s a little problem – the vest is too short.” He whips out his G. I. Joe, and shows his Nana where the hemline falls on tiny Joe. “See, Nana, it hits here,” he chops chops with his small hand to a place on his hip definitely several inches farther down his leg than the current vest sat.

“Why, dear, you are absolutely right!” Nana took the vest, made the necessary and time consuming alterations and rushed the delivery just in time for tricks-or-treats. Of course, she could have tried to talk Scott out of his observation. No one would have faulted her if she had simply said, “It can’t be done.” But instead, Nana taught Scott and me that if you aren’t worried about being wise in your own eyes, you are free to make dreams come true for another. Her greatest moments of joy were never when she got something right. What she loved was helping other people achieve their dreams.

In spite of her slips and tumbles, in all the ways that really matter, Nana lived a healthy and well-nourished life. Her bones were kind of brittle, but the strength of her inner woman was mighty. She shunned evil by serving others for the sake of serving, with no desire for personal recognition or credit.

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