<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zXZE!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa35b7ff5-eac1-426b-a1f3-0b2a71a1f946_4032x3024.jpeg" target="_blank"><div class="image2-inset"><source type="image/webp" /><img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="1092" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zXZE!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa35b7ff5-eac1-426b-a1f3-0b2a71a1f946_4032x3024.jpeg" width="1456" /><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image" tabindex="0" type="button"><svg fill="none" height="20" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="1.5" viewBox="0 0 20 20" width="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image" tabindex="0" type="button"><svg class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2" fill="none" height="20" stroke="currentColor" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" viewBox="0 0 24 24" width="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>More often than not, I think of my Mom and it’s always hard. It’s been 10 years since she died but I can cry like it was a minute ago. There is a part of my heart that is like a fireplace with no heat. And yet, the crepe myrtle that we planted reminds me of her force. So, this piece by <span class="mention-wrap"></span> struck me so I want to share it with you. </p><p class="button-wrapper"><a class="button primary" href="https://substack.com/@liuanhuska/p-198454008"><span>Follow Liuan Huska</span></a></p><blockquote><p>Friends, I haven’t known what to write recently. My Mama died on March 30, 2026. We made a memorial to her on top of our piano where I keep a little ceramic sake bottle fresh with three flowers. Today, they are three irises.</p><p>Friday, three days before she died, I came back from getting a haircut and the yellow daffodils in our yard were blooming. I cut three and put them in the sake bottle with water, and they kept my mom company by her bed during her crucifixion moments.</p><p>I think of those days as a sort of crucifixion for our family. My mom’s body was shutting down. The night I sat vigil with her (my brother and sister and I were taking turns), she would cry out “水！水 ！” (“Water! Water!” in Chinese.) I would take a little plastic medicine dropper and fill it with some jasmine tea, and wet her lips and tongue with the drops. I also squeezed a bit in her mouth but not enough to choke on.</p><p>The day I brought the daffodils in was the last day my mom was lucid. She told me I looked younger with my short haircut. That day, like every other in the weeks leading up to her death, I felt the familiar tug-of-war between my mom’s numbered days and the mountain of things to do to keep our household running. Though I don’t remember it specifically, I’m sure I sat down to rub her feet at some point. I’m sure I went to bed exhausted after doing the kids’ bedtime routine and telling myself, like I did every night, “It’s okay if my mom dies when I’m sleeping, God is with her even if I’m not physically in the room.”</p><p class="button-wrapper"><a class="button primary" href="https://liuanhuska.substack.com/p/the-growing-good-of-the-world"><span>Support Becoming Whole</span></a></p><p>Three daffodils. Maybe they represent the Trinity, the never ending circle of love that envelops us, even when we aren’t aware and even when we have nothing left to give. Maybe, also, they represent us three siblings, circling the bedside, touching my mom, and singing to her as a physical reminder that she wasn’t alone.</p><p>Today, I pulled out packets of seeds (string beans, Korean sweet melons, cucumbers, and so many more) wrapped in paper towel scraps and scribbled with my mom’s Chinese characters (which I often can’t decipher). I soaked some to plant in the garden. Life continues, and the land keeps nourishing us, supported in a small way by my mom’s earlier acts of seed-saving.</p><p>Today, the high school next to our house went into Secure-and-Teach mode because someone called in a threat. A helicopter circled the area, and I thought of all the emergency responders who were coordinating to keep the kids in our town safe.</p><p>Today, I reached out again to church leaders in the Chicagoland area, inviting them to join A Rocha USA’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXcejwJMHKA">Churches of Restoration</a> to deepen their creation care efforts (reach out to me if you’re interested!!). I thought about my friend the mayor’s invitation to me to help our town write up a proclamation to prioritize environmental stewardship and sustainability in city decision-making. It doesn’t feel very earth-shaking to gather groups of people to talk to each other and come up with a plan, and then persistently remind them to follow through with their plans. But as Debra Rienstra recently wrote, <a href="https://reformedjournal.com/2026/05/09/the-spiritual-practice-of-nagging/">nagging can be a spiritual practice</a>.</p><p>I keep thinking about this George Eliot quote, which I found in Kate Marvel’s recent book <em><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/human-nature-kate-marvel?variant=43110377324578">Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet</a>:</em></p><div class="pullquote"><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>…for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.</strong></em></p></div><p>It feels to me that this is all I can muster at the moment—minor, unhistoric acts that aim to further the growing good of the world. But the more I think about them, the more significant they become—the seed-saving, the emergency-responding, the social and spiritual cat-herding of groups to do things that slowly move the needle toward the kind of world we want.</p><p class="button-wrapper"><a class="button primary" href="https://thecrux.substack.com/p/the-growing-good-of-the-world-rests?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p><p>Maybe, even, the water-dropping and the daffodil-picking.</p><p>These acts say, <em>I’m here. I’m not giving up on you or on this world. I’m showing up with what I’ve got in this moment, not knowing exactly how it will all shake out.</em></p><p>Friends, whatever it is you feel is your thing to do right now, whether that’s caregiving, sitting on that committee, planting those seeds, or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/speedoeagleman/">holding signs on the side of the road dressed in a Speedo</a>, know that what you do matters. Even if they’re unhistoric acts. Even if they don’t seem to be making a dent. Down the road in time, maybe more children will go to school safely, more beautiful, green, growing things will flourish, and the world will be a better place because of all our small acts of hidden faithfulness, added up.</p></blockquote><div><hr /></div><p>Thanks for reading. Please follow <span class="mention-wrap"></span> and give her a nudge to keep writing. My late writing professor Lee Woodard said that every good writer can stay in the room with their hard things. I’m grateful that Liuan stayed in the room and offered us a bit of what she saw, heard and felt. I pray that you’re able to do the same in your own way today because bravery can be contagious.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://bit.ly/IVPBeautyandResistance" target="_blank"><div class="image2-inset"><source type="image/webp" /><img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="312" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f05o!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5cf7ee60-aa22-4d35-a957-e5cc57cb8ca8_820x312.jpeg" title="" width="820" /><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image" tabindex="0" type="button"><svg fill="none" height="20" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="1.5" viewBox="0 0 20 20" width="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image" tabindex="0" type="button"><svg class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2" fill="none" height="20" stroke="currentColor" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" viewBox="0 0 24 24" width="20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>Let me know what you think! I look forward to the conversation and comments because our screens make us into lonely consumers but God made us to be a vibrant, liberative community.</strong></p><p>In Christ and for His Glory,</p><p>jonathan</p>