WASTELAND TURNED LEGACY
In saying that, I do have a story to share with you on how God has encouraged me along this path where I am discovering how the season of mourning is and dealing with the loss of loved ones.
A few weeks ago, I was out in the area speaking at the Stonecroft luncheons and a dinner. I already knew that one of the luncheons would be emotional because the person who devoted herself to arranging that particular luncheon had passed on Christmas. This woman was an encourager. She had spent some time with me on the phone before when I went through some serious stuff. She encouraged me.
I wasn't prepared for the news when I stepped into the dinner gathering and discovered the woman who devoted herself to this region had passed suddenly a few days before while with her family in another country. This woman was my first contact to this ministry and had opened doors and been there for conversations.
At that dinner I tried to speak about grief and struggled, until the LORD gave me another way to go about encouraging the women through this season.
It was something I had started to write about it.
A very dear friend of mine, part of the sister blue threads group, has an incredible garden. It is so beautiful. Her mother had a beautiful garden also in her yard, I call her a master gardener, because literally when you pull up to her home, there is a full-fledged garden to walk through, and it is beautiful.
My friend and her sister learned well from their mother and after their mom passed, my friend grew a beautiful garden of her own. when you pulled up to her home the tall dahlias would be standing beside a white picket fence waving with their friendly beautiful, colorful faces.
When you stepped out of the car you were met with colorful flowers up to the front door and her yard too was a garden you wanted to tour filled with amazing, beautiful strong flowers.
What a beautiful legacy my friend's mom passed down to her daughters. How to work the land, plant the seeds, feed and care for these plants to help them to grow into the amazing strong plants they were meant to be.
(I am a gardener, but not a master gardener like them, but I know the time, I know the care, I know the joy that comes from watching the plants grow and thrive and show their beauty. It makes a person's heart smile so big.)
Well, one day my friend hired some landscapers to trim some branches and a few shrubs. When they finished, and she stepped out into her yard, her garden was gone. The landscapers had weed whacked the entire garden down to the quick. Her plans for the next step in her garden suddenly was taken away. She looked out at a wasteland, her beloved garden GONE.
This caused grief. This loss is great. This work of her hand, taught by her beloved mother, part of her mother's legacy that lived on through the work of her hands, GONE.
One day she went out to her garden, and she was met with a wonderful surprise. There was the start of a poppy bud.
New life had started. It would take a while for new growth to flourish. This poppy bud was a sign that life will go on, there will be new beginnings, in the face of loss.
Does that mean grief goes away? No.
It means life does go on. And what is the legacy of who is not going on in life with us?
I looked around the room of the women sitting there who had lost someone in their leadership. someone who had made sure to put all of the meals together so that people they knew would hear the gospel of Jesus Christ through the stories of others that they want to pass on.
I saw their beautiful faces, some with tears, some with understanding smiles, and I saw the beautiful garden the two women we were grieving had left behind.
I told them I believed they were part of their legacy.
They were a part of the beauty that was left behind.
What a beautiful legacy, they learned how to plant spiritual seeds, feed and care for those growing in their relationship with the Lord and helping them to be the amazing strong women they were meant to be.
I can tell you the legacy my nephew left behind. It is heard out of the mouth of most people I talk too, he was there. He was there for many people, right up to the end, when he brought food to his friend. He was there.
And through this time of grief, I know that God is here. And He is there, He is everywhere.
If you look around your life space, you will see Him.
The legacy that God has is - He loved His creation so much He gave His ONLY begotten Son Jesus to die for the ENTIRE WORLD. And if we believe we are saved.
Can you hold on to that? Can you believe in an everlasting love that will always BE THERE, never leave you?
See no matter the circumstance, He is there. His love surrounds us.
That is what I so hope to share with you and hope beyond anything that you will believe and follow Him into eternity.
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