My mother-in-law, Joyce Lancaster Luckadoo, was a simple woman.  A devout Christian, her days were spent caring for family, ministering to loved ones who needed a helping hand, teaching children’s Sunday School, and singing in the choir.  Shortly before her death, she received a plaque for 50 years of Sunday School ministry, and she retired from the choir only when she was unable to walk up the three steps to the choir loft a few months before her passing!

Perhaps it was because of her faithfulness that the Lord sent a choir to sing their way through the halls of the Hospice House the morning she passed away.  I can still hear “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder I’ll Be There” and other songs about heaven as I reflect on that morning.

Mama Joyce, as her grandchildren and great children called her, had grown up poor—the youngest of four girls.  Her parents had worked in a cotton mill.  They lived in a “company house” and made do with whatever they had.  Three good dresses—that’s all she had—two for school which she wore on alternate days and one for Sundays.   A child of the depression, she was very frugal but also very generous in her own unique way.

She married at 18 and lived with one of her sisters when her new husband, Boyd, went off to war.  She would bear his first child, Gerald, while he served in the Philippines, and she would single-parent her new baby until he was released from the military when Gerald was 2 ½ years old.

She would have a beloved daughter, Gail, shortly after his return. It was to this small family that she would devote her next 70 years as wife and mother and then grandmother and great grandmother.

Though certainly not a rich woman, she always had a gift for you whenever you visited—a piece of cake, a jar of pickles or green beans, a bag of frozen corn or something else she had preserved in her freezer.

Mama Joyce passed away four years ago today—January 28, 2014.  Perhaps that is why memories of her and her passing are flooding my mind this morning.  She was a wonderful mother-in-law!  I miss her.

Several weeks after her passing, my husband, Gerald, his sister, Gail, and I began the very difficult task of disposing of her possessions.  A very organized, tidy woman, Mama Joyce had not accumulated much.  She kept only the things that she truly treasured or used on a regular basis.  Having been a homemaker for 70 years, much of what she owned was worn out.  Her motto, “Make do or do without” was obvious.  She did, however, have two drawers in her dresser where she kept the things she really cared about—her treasures.

As I carefully removed the items in the “treasure drawers,” I was drawn to an old pill bottle.  When I opened it, I was surprised to find not pills but little baby’s teeth.  On further examination, I discovered the teeth had belonged to my husband Gerald.  These “keepsakes” were a gentle reminder of how much she adored her son, the child she clung to in the long absence of his Daddy.   The baby book accompanying the pill bottle detailed all his “firsts.”

A moment of sadness overwhelmed me as I closed the book and gently placed it and the bottle in the moving box. Tears slipped down my cheeks. It felt like I was somehow invading holy ground as I packed her “treasures” for removal.

In the sadness of the moment, though, a reminder from Scripture brought comfort and joy.

^“You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
You have recorded each one in your book.” (Psalm 56:8 NLT)

How wonderful!  Our Father—Abba—Daddy– has keepsakes from our lives.  He keeps our tears in bottles as a reminder of how much He loves and cares for us.  What comfort we can have in knowing that our doting Daddy loves us enough to tenderly minister to us when tears flow and hearts break.

After carefully closing the “Memories” box and gently placing it in the backseat of our SUV, I was overwhelmed by another word from Abba—a promise that He is there to comfort us now and forever!

^“He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (Revelation 21:4)

What joy awaits as when we are united with Christ Jesus and reunited with dear ones who have gone ahead of us!  I can almost hear the heavenly choir singing for us just as that church choir sang as Mama Joyce left us for heaven:

“When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair
When the saved of earth shall gather on the other shore,
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there

When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll, is called up yon-der,
When the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there

What about you?  Want to share “precious memories”?  I’d love to hear from you!