Devotions

Mom Peters’ mugs, upon my shelf up high,

Ceramic, old, and different shades of brown,

Inciting images from days gone by

Of driving over mountains to her town.

I drove from Colorado to Cheyenne,

Five hundred miles with two kids in the back. 

We got there before bedtime, by the plan.

When we got in, all tired, we’d have a snack.

When done, the kids would scamper down the hall

And open the small closet full of toys.

And there they would proceed to have a ball,

While Mom and I would talk despite the noise.

She’d fill those old, brown cups with steaming tea,

And tell me tales of when she was a child,

The time she got in trouble as a teen,

 She sent her horse back home across the wild.

My mother-in-law was the very best.

The mugs remind me, we were greatly blessed.

Oasis

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2

When my two kids were little, we’d make the trek from Southwest Colorado to my parents in western PA. It was 2,000 miles and the speed limit then was an insufferable 55 m.p.h. The accident rate actually went up in Wyoming when they lowered the speed limit to 55 because of drivers falling asleep in the barren landscape.

We’d take a day to drive to Cheyenne where all of my husband’s family lived. Then on to Lincoln, Nebraska where two of my four sisters lived. After staying there a while, my next older sister and two of her kids would pile into my small car with me. With the adults in the front and four kids squished in back, we called it the sardine express. Then on to Ohio where the oldest sister lived. Then after a day or two there, we’d at last arrive in PA and spend a couple weeks there with my mom and dad. It took about 40 hours driving each way with the speed limit so low. We’d be gone from home for about a month.

Whether we were coming from Colorado to Cheyenne or Lincoln to Cheyenne stopping at my mother-in-laws was like stopping at an oasis. Comedians tell a lot of jokes about mother-in-laws but Mom P. was nowhere near any of the in-laws that they joked about. She was as sweet as could be. She always made us feel welcome and comfortable and never tried to boss me around about the way I parented my kids.

One summer, I stayed with her before my husband and I got married. I wanted to do something for her. She said her flower box needed weeded. I asked her if there was anything in the flower box that shouldn’t be pulled. She said no. I guess she didn’t expect me to do the weeding. I did and it wasn’t until years later she told me that I had pulled out her roses.

One time, we were preparing supper together. I was getting some dishes out of the cupboard. She said that the one cake server she had was an antique, very old and had been in the family a long time. I think she scared me. As gently as I could I set it aside to get something from behind it. I was afraid I’d break it. But then I bumped something on the counter which fell over onto the server and broke it. Mom P said, “Oh, that’s too bad.” And that’s all she said. Then she just went on as if nothing happened. She never let anything that disturbed her, disturb our relationship.

We spent many hours talking over those old brown mugs. The stories she told of growing up on a Wyoming ranch in the thirties was so different from what I knew from growing up in Pennsylvania in the sixties and seventies. The time she sent her horse home, there were no phones. She didn’t think to leave a message attached to the horse. She just sent it home when she decided to stay with a friend. And, of course, her parents sent out a search party.

She often talked about how when she was born, she was so little her mom kept her in a shoe box.

She had a brother James who died in a farming accident. That morning, he was reluctant to go to work and she always thought he had some kind of premonition.  

When Mom P passed at 81 years of age, I requested the cups since they reminded me of our times together.  Every time I see them, I miss our talks. And they’re a reminder to try to be a refreshing oasis to the people in my life. Let’s think of ways to do that. Perhaps it’s a toy closet for the kids and sharing tea from special mugs.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please, give creative ideas to us to be an oasis to the people You put in our lives, whether they be family, friends, business associates, acquaintances or complete strangers, because the Bible says those strangers may be angels and how we treat “the least” is how we treat You. 

Recommended Reading: Matthew 25:31-46, Matthew 7:7-12