And I hear her still....

I had her daughter over the other day.

Three days after the new year.  Six days after the death of her mama.  Five days before her mama's memorial service.

I had her daughter over and my friend, who is with Jesus now, still managed to teach me something.

This time I heard her voice not with the same usual confident, yet kind, voice.  This time it was a younger voice.  Her daughter's voice.  And in that voice, she taught me how to cut brownies.  

I was trying to cut warm chocolate brownies for a young girl's get together and the knife was not cutting, but smooshing the brownies with deep ridges that turned each brownie from a tasty morsel of a sweet square shaped treat to a jagged piece of chocolate dough.

The voice quietly came.
With confidence, yet humility.
With sweet humor and help.
Just like her mother...

"My mom always used a plastic knife when she cut brownies.  She said it cut better and I always asked her why she kept washing a plastic knife and she always kept it."

I looked at her.  A deep sadness in the depths of her eyes, so deep in the souls of her spirit that you could barely see it, yet also showing so clearly on the face of the child who loved...loves... her mama so.

I went to the drawer because in God's crazy yet ever present provision, I had just gotten take out with a knife the few days before.

So I grabbed the knife and proceeded to cut...to really cut, the brownies into beautiful sweet squares with crisp chewy edges.

I  laughed then because I can hear my friend still.  Teaching me like she did when she was here.  Teaching me to be a better mom, a better friend, and a better lover of Jesus.  I hear her still.

In the voice of her daughter as she taught me how to cut brownies.

What a moment!

   Angie