It is Thursday now and I am still in Florida. Mom is doing better, still working on getting off the breathing machine. Things are moving each day - slowly but surely. As I sit in her room, watching her breathe through tubes, be fed through tubes, monitors all over, machines, wires, tubes, alarms, lights, alarms....... my mind tells me "this is not my mom". In a sense this is true. My mom was active. She was vibrant. So in a sense, this is not her.

However, and that is a big however, there are things that define my mom that can never be taken away. Memories of who she is, her impact on my life, her impact on the family, her testimony to the world around her - these are things that also define her. I am going to make a jump, so hang on (my mind was whirring, so not sure if this jump will make a lot of sense). My mom is an eternal being - there are things about her that will last forever: her faith, her relationships, her life.

It really helps me to view the things in this life in the light of eternity instead of from a temporal or earthly perspective. From an earthly perspective; this is bad. From an eternal perspective, it is an event that God wants to use in His on-going development of my mom, my family, those in her circle and me. (That sounds really cold and unemotional - not meant to be.) As the writer of Hebrews records about Abraham (11:10) - he viewed this planet as a temporary stopping place because he was looking for a city whose foundation was God. I have to keep that perspective or this whole thing does not make sense.

It is times like this that I am reminded of what Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthian church:

2CO 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. [17] For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. [18] So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

This is true of my mom; this is true of me; this is true of all of us who look at things from an eternal perspective.