“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”—2 Corinthians 4:16 (NKJV)
My mother was a kindergarten teacher and used to create all her own wall art and storybooks. She moved to painting watercolors later in life. Even after her Alzheimer’s took a turn for the worse, if I talked to her about what she saw out her window or about flowers or about what she was wearing, she snapped into focus. Never were things simply blue or green or yellow. The sky was just shy of periwinkle or a soft gray touched with pink.
With Mom, three things remained as everything else disappeared: a posture of gratitude, absolute trust in God and that incredible attention to color in the world around her. These constants became the only ways to really connect with her. When I leaned into them, her life and mine were better.
I wrote her short notes about color; I worked my way through all 64 hues in the Crayola box. After she passed away, I found the notes neatly stacked, each with a few words from her—“I like this.… I remember that green dress.…” It made me so happy we had that connection.
Thank you, Lord, for the wonders that endure.
