Don’t forget, Mother-in-Law Day is coming up this weekend…
Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to Joni and Friends. You know I sure do miss my mother-in-law, Kyoko Tada – Ken’s mother went home to be with the Lord back in 2003 as a result of pancreatic cancer. I’ll never forget the first time we took her to the UCLA Cancer Clinic. The place was crowded with families sitting quietly, somberly flipping through magazines. I glanced at my mother-in-law, Mom Tada -- that’s what I call this brave, small, little Japanese woman -- I glanced at her, 84 years old and struggling against a very painful kind of cancer. My heart twisted whenever I saw her wince. I knew she was in pain.
I breathed a prayer as they escorted my mother-in-law into the chemo room. She hunched her shoulders and I could tell the pain was getting worse. After Ken and his mom disappeared behind the doors, I turned to some reading material I had brought. On the second page, I read a verse, a Bible verse that I know I’ve read hundreds of times. It’s John 11:25‑26 where Jesus calmly says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Sitting there, waiting in a cancer clinic – God seemed to be asking me, “Joni, do you believe this?”
My mind wandered back to the time when Mom Tada purchased her grave plot at a cemetery just north of UCLA. She asked Ken and I to go to the cemetery with her and approve the gravesite before she signed the papers. We went up on the hillside to take a look at the plot – it was in a section called “Murmuring Pines” (that was the name of the section it was in) – and I sat there listening to the realtor (that’s what the cemetery called her, a realtor). She reminded us that with mother’s head “here,” and her feet “there,” she would have a grand view of the valley and distant mountains. I told the realtor I didn’t expect either my mother-in-law or my husband or myself to spend much time there. We’d only be there until the Resurrection. Waiting for my mother-in-law to finish chemotherapy, that memory bolstered my spirits.
Mom Tada’s treatment took almost three hours. By the time she was wheeled back into the waiting room, I really felt renewed and I felt refreshed by the Words of Christ. I gave my mother-in-law a hug straight from the heart. Or maybe it was a hug straight from God's heart. For John 11:25-26 helped me to ‘get it all back in focus.’ Strengthened by the Spirit of Christ, we sang hymns in the car all the way back home. The prognosis for Mom Tada was not good. We knew that in a few short months, she would die and thinking about that verse in John chapter 11, one day we will all go her path. Wow! I had to think: do we believe? Do we believe this? Do we hold fast to that marvelous fact that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life?! Soon we shall be at home in heaven. At that point I shall embrace not only my mother-in-law, but my own mother. We will all cry and point, “Look at this! Can you believe this? We’re here! They are here! I knew it was true, but not this true!” It’s going to happen; it’s about to break on the horizon. Heaven’s coming. Yes, it came for my mother-in-law, but it will also happen for you, if you embrace Christ… all because... we believe.
I posted a couple of photos of Mom Tada on my radio page today and, since we’re on the subject of the resurrection, when you stop by also ask for your free copy of my booklet, "Yearning for Heaven."
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
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