Isn’t it amazing how sometimes you can’t remember where you were last week, but you can remember with crystal clarity where you were years ago? I couldn’t tell you where I was last month, but I will never forget where I was 30 years on Thursday, January 28. My (step) mother was very sick. She had been fighting cancer for over 7 months. My Dad knew her time was about to come so he sent me and my sisters to family. That Thursday morning the phone rang and my life, and my family’s life, was about to change, drastically.

The morning she died my Dad told me that he and the pastor were with her. As she laid in the bed that she had been unable to get out of for the past month, the pastor asked how she was feeling. How she answered amazes me even today, “It has been a battle, but a glorious day is coming, and I’m ready.” I was 12 years old then, and I’m almost 40 now, but I will never forget those words. The words of someone who found peace with God even as they were going through the “valley of the shadow of death.”

Even though Wanda may have occupied a small chapter in my life, her testimony has made a huge impact. Life is a battle, it is a struggle, but every believer has the hope of a glorious day that is coming. A day where there is no more sorrow, pain, separation, and no more sin. Jesus is coming as He said, “Are you ready?”