‘Mummy, you’re so beautiful!’ sighed the eleven year old girl as she stroked her mother’s hand…

I’ve been thinking about that ever since I heard it a few weeks ago now, when it stopped me in my tracks mentally and moved me to tears. You see, this was not a doting daughter watching her mother getting dressed up to go out somewhere, trying to compliment her. I heard it at the bedside of a dear friend who was dying of cancer in what should have been the prime of life. Her family was gathered round her as she lay there unconscious, breathing only intermittently. We had prayed so much for her to be healed but it seemed like God was on the point of taking her to be with Him in glory, utterly healed forever.

We were all in deep grief. Five children and a husband were about to be cruelly separated from a wonderful woman who had loved them, cared for them, played with them, nurtured them, taught them about life in all its forms; prayed with them and for them; lived out an example of holiness as she laughed and cried; and followed Jesus with a passion and commitment that was breath-taking.

What can you say at a time like that? We had cried, prayed……prayed and cried, and then there was the waiting. And into the waiting moments her young daughter had said wistfully, ‘Mummy, you’re so beautiful,’ and we all knew what she meant. Not the beauty of the cosmeticised, plasticized, digitally- and medically-enhanced marketing images that surround us day in, day out: all that was long gone from her worn-out, frail, tumour-ridden body. What was left was the real and lasting beauty of her spirit that would live on in the memories and lives of her family and friends, and would now be truly alive in glorious technicolour with her Lord in heaven.

It made me think about the legacy I want to leave to my children and friends. There is such a strong pull to spend time and money on fading beauty. Instead, I need to be in places and with people who are swimming against that current.

Our Thursday morning group is just one of those places – maybe we’ll see you there!