The story the closet tells

My mother went to heaven on May 29th. Like all of us, she went without a suitcase or even a purse, so all of her earthly possessions were left here. It was her great desire for all of her clothes to be put to good use as soon as possible, so Dad asked my sister and I to come down yesterday and sort her things. Funny the story a simple closet can tell.

This is what her closet told me yesterday. Take care of what you have. It's a gift from God, and careful use will help you represent God and yourself well. Be thrifty. You can look good and be appropriate without big brand names, and sometimes God will surprise you with a designer find at a thrift store. :-) Clean it and fix it before you put it away. You can be ready at a moment's notice if you take care of things as they come up. Enough is enough. You can only wear one outfit and one pair of shoes at a time. Reason and stewardship says there's a place to stop--I don't need it just because I can afford it. Simple memories are precious. Mother chose the dress she wore to my brother J's and sister-in-law Cathy's wedding almost 20 years ago for the "going-away" outfit she was buried in. The dresses she wore to the other 3 family weddings were treasures draped in plastic. HER wedding dress was not there. After 50 years, she had gotten rid of the simple white suit she wore, but her sentimental heart still had it's treasures. In a little box were 6 decorated buttons with this note, "The buttons from my wedding dress." Thinking ahead saves time. She had written little notes to herself and attached them to some of the clothes, saying, "Can wear this with the green slacks and scarf."

One job is left from the closet, and that's going through several small boxes on a bottom shelf. Just by a quick count, I saw one box had more than 20 prayer journals Mom had filled with her own careful handwriting. Just about then, it seemed to me the closet started singing. It sounded like this:
After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone, and our children sift through all we've left behind, May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover, become the light that leads them to the road we each must find! Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful! May the fire of our devotion light their way! May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe, and the lives we live inspire them to obey! Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful! (steve green)