My mother is in the hospital and it looks as if that may be where she will spend Christmas this year. She's 80 years old and suffering from the last stages of C.O.P.D. I have beat myself up trying to figure out what to get her for Christmas. I go by and see her every afternoon. I looked at her yesterday and noticed how much she has aged in just this past year. I remembered how beautiful my Momma was when I was a little boy. I used to sit on her lap in church and think, Boy, I got the prettiest Momma in the whole world. My Momma was the first to tell me about Jesus. Mostly beneath her clothes line. I have decided to frame the poem below with some pictures of Momma during different times of her life and give this to her for Christmas. I want to share the poem with the rest of you.
"Momma's Clothes Line"
Today as my mind wanders back in time,
I think of the joy beneath Momma's clothes line.
For it was there the truth of the Scriptures I found,
When Momma would set her clothes basket down.
It was there Momma told me the story,
Of the Word of God in all its glory.
She told me how that Adam in the garden did sin,
And because of this we all needed to be born again.
She told me of Abraham and how he forsook all,
Leaving both family and friends to answer God's call.
How that God told Elijah it was time to awake,
For there was a widow waiting at Zarepath's gate.
She told of Joseph, who his brothers did sell,
And how he wound up in Egypt, in Pharaoh's jail.
She told how he was delivered by God's own hand,
And promoted by Pharaoh to second in command.
She told of Jonah and I thought it was swell,
How a man could live in the belly of a whale.
She told about Goliath whom God he did defy,
And how at the hand of little David he did die.
She told of three Hebrew boys thrown in the flames.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were their names.
She told of how that Babylonian king did learn,
He could throw them in the fire, but they wouldn't burn.
She told me how that God had came to this earth,
To save all that believed by way of a new birth.
How He paid for the sins of all who were lost,
By giving His life on the old rugged cross.
When later in life I heard the preacher stand and say, "Come all who thirst,"
I had no trouble in coming, for I had already heard it from my Momma first!
And now whenever it seems that I am having a hard time,
I try remembering what I heard neath' Momma's clothes line.
