Sunday is Mother’s Day, and I’ve been reflecting on my own mom. Having grown up surrounded by her love, her prayers, and her non-stop good times, the only thing I can do is translate my thoughts to prayers of gratitude.

Mom lived to be 92, and of course she became more sedentary as the years piled up. She never stopped playing games with her grand-kids, though, and loved every encounter with them. But there was something she loved even more than that: reading her Bible. “I’m studying for my finals, you know,” she’d say, a statement that reflected her strong belief she would be in the presence of Jesus “pretty soon.” She wanted to be as well prepared to meet him as she could, and burying herself in his Word seemed like the right approach.

In 2004 (her last summer), she stayed a while with us at our cottage in Michigan. As a crowd of us would pack up for the beach, she’d settle into a chair by the window, her Bible in her lap and say, “Have fun!” In her opinion, though, she was having the greater fun, with Scripture.

That summer I watched her repeatedly open to the first page of the Bible, Genesis 1, where day after day she’d be on the same page. One day I asked about that. “Why don’t you turn the page?”

Her answer was interesting. “Have you ever thought there might have been eons of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2?” She couldn’t turn the page, because the first one offered so much to think about.

As she sat hour after hour studying Genesis 1, she bounced back and forth from reading to meditating to asking God questions, trying to absorb everything she could.

It was during that summer she said, “The answer to every problem is in the Bible, and that includes the cure for cancer.” Her favorite example of Scripture’s practical information was in Exodus 2:3’s description of the basket that baby Moses’ mother made for him. The Bible says she waterproofed it with “tar and pitch.” Mom said, “That was to let people know where to drill for oil.”

Mom absolutely loved her Bible and fully trusted the Spirit of God to have led the men who wrote it. She often asked us scriptural questions and readily admitted she didn’t have all the answers.

I’m quite sure Mom never had to take any heavenly final exam, but if she had, she would have done A-OK. As I think back on her unflagging diligence in studying Genesis 1 that summer, it’s satisfying to know that now, in the Lord’s presence, she has had her questions answered.

And she probably even knows which Bible verses hold the cure for cancer.

Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures?” (Mark 12:24)