Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

3 For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
² A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

For years, it’s been our mothers favorite phrase. When her heart was filled to overflowing, enjoying time with her husband, girls, boys (our husbands) and grandchildren, she’d announce, “oh, I can just go on to glory!” We’d laugh and roll our eyes and remind her that she was too young and it wasn’t her time…

Yesterday, I received a call from my dad and sister that mom had taken a turn for the worse. Since March, she has been enduring: 

• Pain
• Coughing
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Doctor visits
• Hospital stays
• Questions
• Testing
• Side effects from meds
• Confusion
• Swelling
• Lack of appetite 
• Irregular heart rate
• Low oxygen levels
• Decreasing platelet counts
• Enlarged spleen

Currently, there are no answers from the experts. They don’t know why her health is rapidly declining. They can’t explain what’s going on.

They can’t.

But God can.

In route from FL to NC yesterday (we were house hunting all weekend), I spoke briefly with mom. She wanted to share a dream she had with me. Although her speech was slurred and broken, my soul received the fullness of her encounter with the Lord. In the dream, she was going to the crystal city. I wasn’t going with her; it wasn’t time for me. Instead, I was going to a new city with my family. In that place, God would give me everything she had wanted from Him. He told her that everything was going to be ok… 

I’ve been a dreamer for more than a decade. It’s one of the primary ways the Lord speaks to me- giving direction, correction and heavenly perspective for the future. And He did it again yesterday. God promised a generational blessing through a dream!

What a gift in this season. 

What perfect timing. 

On Easter Sunday, after mom was discharged from the hospital a second time, the Bullard Pack came by for a visit. She was sleeping in her bed. When I sat down and took hold of her hand, I heard the Spirit say, “she’s dying….”

“Mom, it’s Jodie” I whispered.

She opened her eyes.

I smiled.

She smiled and squeezed my hand.

She mumbled, “oh….it’s so good to see you. I just wanted to die. But I’ll keep fighting.”

“It’s ok, mom. You can go on to glory if you want…but selfishly, I want more time with you.”

She smiled.

I wept.

Tears ran down her face.

Then there was silence.

And unexplainable peace.

I did the same late last night when I arrived at the hospital.

“Mom, it’s Jodie.” I whispered

She opened her eyes.

I smiled.

She smiled and squeezed my hand.

“You can go on to glory when it’s time….” I said.

“Yep. I’m READY. But I wanna go home and see all of you one last time.”

Then there was silence.

And unexplainable peace.

Mom is coming home with hospice today, as she requested. We don’t know when she will go on to glory, but we know the One who holds the keys to death and the grave… and at the appointed time, He will call her home- for eternity.