We mamas are the keeper of memories...we are the ones to know the victory of a difficult math concept finally captured, we are the ones who know when to bypass broccoli and pull out the ice cream. I grieve that my story is taking that role away from me. And I struggle that my babies won’t know what a gift the collecting of those memories has been. That’s why I write and write and write. Because I want them to know how important they are and how beautiful the small moments of their lives truly are. So I sit and remember and write. I am a keeper. ~Kara Tippetts
The moment I read these words, something tangible caught in my throat. I had felt it welling up inside me with every page I finished. It was the understanding of a heart that needed to write and write and write if only to protect the memories quietly kept within her.
How many times had I felt the weight of being keeper to my own four loves? Be it after my stroke or my daddy’s funeral or my long-term illness unraveled before me. How many times had I been driven to sit and remember and write? How many times could these have been the very words to describe the trappings of my heart?
And yet, these are not my words.
They are hers.
Sacred, hard won and unapologetically real.
I suppose in many ways I should have known that drinking them in would bring all the things in my heart to the surface.
Kara Tippetts had that gift.
But what I did not expect is the overwhelming weight of sharing her words with you. It is not enough to simply say, ”Read her new book, y’all.” It is instead a place to know her.
She was someone’s mama, someone's daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s greatest love, someone’s person, someone’s someone.
And It Was Beautiful reminds you of Kara's humanity. That she loved and lived and wrote in a way that did not discount her messy places.
It is why nearly every page found me saying, “I know this place. I know this hurt. I know this Jesus.”
Just as I know this pressing urgency…
Today is all I have and I must keep my eyes focused on what’s in front of me and do the next thing in love. I have faces to kiss and bags to pack and prayers to pray and love to share right now, right here today. And so I say thank you for these things while swallowing the new pills that hopefully can keep more cancer armies from crossing my borders. Blessing the Lord is not clean, it’s not just when things are easy and good and healthy. It’s thanking Him at ALL times and in ALL circumstances, not for the painful things but for His presence.
Yes, we have walked different roads.
She had Stage IV breast cancer. I have a chronic and systemic illness.
She had to buy lunch boxes. I had to buy backpacks.
She cried out a “Jesus, help.” I cry out a “Jesus, please.”
Her favorite color was green. My favorite color is red.
She rang the snot out of that cancer treatment bell the first time she finished chemo. And I did the most crazy, awkward dance with my cane when I completed my most recent round of physical therapy.
But even in our differences, we both have known the same need to praise Him in all the hard things.
And that is the gift that Kara Tippetts gave the world.
A place to recognize the unfailing goodness of Jesus, even in the deepest earthly pain.
It is a place so beautiful it transcends cancer and death and its shattering hurt.
But it is also a story unfinished. One that Kara's publisher and friend, David C. Cook, has masterfully crafted so it leaves the reader wanting more than is given. Because he understands the truth that her ending is being written in a place we all have yet to go...
Home.
With that, the time has finally come for me to say, “Read this book, y’all.”
And in the meantime, keep well, live well and do the next thing in love.
To learn more about Kara Tippett's journey as well as her continued legacy, go to www.mundanefaithfulness.com.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book free from David C. Cook and Litfuse Publicity for a blog tour. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”