A Message in the Sand

 


The day after my mother died, my sister and I went to the funeral home to confirm all the details. When we returned to the house, it was still early in the day. We looked at each other and said, “If Mom were here, she’d tell us to go to the beach. It’s a beautiful day.”

So that’s what we did.

We packed a lunch, some drinks and our beach chairs. Instead of sitting near the water, as we usually did, we chose a quiet spot toward the back of the beach, where there were fewer people.

I’m the kind of beachgoer who digs in the sand with her feet while sitting in her chair. I did it then, and I still do it today. As my sister and I sat talking about our mother, my feet did their usual digging until they struck something hard.

It was a rock.

I lifted it from the sand and brushed it off. On its surface were the letters JC, written in white. They looked as though they had been carefully painted by a grade-school teacher.

We stayed at the beach for a few more hours. When it was time to leave, I reached down and picked up the rock. Just as I lifted it, the wind blew—and what I had thought were painted letters blew away with the rest of the sand.

My sister and I looked at each other in disbelief.

The letters had not been painted on the rock at all. They had been formed by sand.

To this day, we believe that rock was a sign from our mother and that the letters JC stood for Jesus Christ. We believe she was letting us know that she had arrived safely in Heaven—and had met someone very special.

I still have the rock.

And I still believe we received a heavenly message from our mom.

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