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Golden, Golden, Golden: My Mother’s Last Lesson

Golden, Golden, Golden: My Mother’s Last Lesson

Last updated on: July 7, 2026 at 10:29 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

Golden, Golden, Golden: My Mother’s Last Lesson 2026-07-07T22:29:25-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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Getting to the Bottom of Things

Mom taught me to “get to the bottom” of everything. If you had a lazy opinion, she would make “her boys” examine that opinion, even if she agreed with it. Poor Dad was sometimes driven to distraction by long discussions in the kitchen on topics ranging from assumptions in science fiction to the Civil War. We would beg him to let us continue the discussion for just a bit more and he always relented. We were having too much fun.

Our Civil War discussion was one of the best days ever.

Mom was proud of her Union ancestors but she could not abide lazy thinking about the War. “Did you just pick the winning side?” She presented the case for the South, discussed the exploitation of factory labor in the North, and the abuse of civil liberties by the Lincoln administration. Early-teen me, despite having read all I could about the War, was not prepared.

I Now Know Why

She made sure I was thinking and not just moving through debating points. Many glasses of “flavored drink” later (we could not afford brands like Kool-Aid), my opinion was still Union forever but now I knew why. I was ready for real opposition and, sure enough, decades later I actually ran into purveyors of the “Lost Cause” narrative.

They were not ready for what Mom had taught me!

Getting to the Bottom of Things

In the last six months, Mom was caught by cancer and other debilitating diseases that come with age. I noticed the problems before the diagnosis when she was not able to catch holes in arguments she heard. . . sometimes. Yet early last month in the hospital, she was still able to manifest another side of her personality: keen spiritual insight that could skip steps and see what was up in a person or the world.

She had no time or energy for trivialities. She was getting to the bottom of things, not verbally, but totally with all her heart, soul, and mind.

Things had been tough around the house, what with the loss of Dad last year, and various changes afoot in our lives. She became, in contrast, more optimistic about the world. She would not suffer our gloom as she began to see revival coming. She saw possibilities where we saw problems and she began to proclaim that the best was yet to be. At one point, she said: “The future is glorious, though perhaps I will not be there to see it.”

Finding More Life

I am not sure what she was seeing but I suspect that she, like Job, was done talking about God and was now seeing Him. Everything was good because the good God is in charge. “Golden, golden, golden,” she would say with her hands lifted in prayer. As she experienced hospital and faced hospice, she got to the bottom of life and found more life.

We took Mom home to West Virginia on June 6, where she lies now with Dad, waiting for the sure resurrection of the dead. Her body waits redemption, surely at the bottom of things, but her soul has gone to glory. She sees now and her faith is vindicated by the truth she valued above all.

I miss Mom.

Yet just like those Saturdays as a boy, as an older man she taught me in her last dialectic with death that the finding of truth, the bottom of all human experiences, is glorious. The truth is not decay but transfiguration. The bottom is not the grave but gold: real gold.

See you in the morning, Mom.

Progressive Christian

History and Religion

Family, Parenting and Religion

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About John Mark N. Reynolds

John Mark Reynolds is the Vice President of Advancement and Strategic Leadership at the College of Biblical Studies in Houston. As an educational entrepreneur, he was the founding president of The Saint Constantine Schools and College and the founding director of the Torrey Honors College at Biola University. As provost at Houston Christian University, he oversaw the formation of the apologetics and media programs. He is also a philosopher and joyous curmudgeon. He lives with his wife, the Fairest Flower in Christendom, his two granddaughters, daughter, son-in-law, and brother in the jolly Saint Theodora House. You can read more about the author here.

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