I sighed numbly, my mind exhausted after hours of detailed sorting through books, “I think if I see even one more book on prayer I may go over the brink.” My brother-in- law, Ronnie, and I, had been given the job of sorting through my mother-in-law’s vast assortment of theological and devotional books.
Kay, whom I love as much as my real mom, has recently moved out of her home where she lived for almost sixty years. The kids including the sons-in-law now have the daunting task of sifting through all the possessions that Kay has accumulated over her 87 years.
Kay has been a reader all her life. She didn’t buy books to line up on shelves to impress people. Most of her books were about becoming a more informed, and committed Christian. She read deeply, widely, frequently and meditatively. Almost every single volume had at least one bookmark, sometimes two or three. Many of the pages had copious markings, and occasionally entire paragraphs were underlined. None of us will ever forget that she constantly aspired to know God better and to follow him more closely.
If she came across a book that she thought would help her to that goal she would buy it in a flash. As a young mother with three little girls in tow she would browse for her treasures, hours at a time, in musty second hand book stores. In our age reading is almost a lost art, but Mom’s love for it inspired her children to become readers as well, and some of them writers. And beyond her example, she leaves a trove of countless worthy books that helped her in her walk and will be of great help to us who inherit them.
Besides books there were personal journals and diaries recounting her own aspirations and pursuit after God, ink spilled for her sake, yes, but for us as well. Beyond that there were the cassette tapes of praise music, wall hangings, and the plaques that got collected over the years. For Kay, God was as real and as present to her as was her very breath.
As long as I can remember she was a woman of prayer who prayed not just for her own needs, but for her kids, grandkids and her neighbours. We felt like we could just call her up anytime when one of our kids was in trouble, and then we could rest easier. We knew the old amazon of prayer was on her knees. Makes you think she actually read a lot of those books on prayer, doesn’t it?
Kay is a woman who is constantly praising God. I have seen her only intermittently over the years as I live far away. Yet when we are together she always shares about what God is doing in her life. Her legacy consists not only in the old praise cassettes, but in the constant praise that is a hallmark of her daily life.
As I was going through Mom’s enormous library I over and over again mused on the words of, Find us Faithful, a well known song by Steve Green.
After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
I salute you my mother. Kay Roberts. My footprints come behind yours--I have found you faithful.
Published in The Guelph Mercury, July 16, 2011
