This is my mom and I at my daughter's wedding this summer. To have her there was such joy to my soul.
Go to this link to see more shots from that day in July! See Armantrout wedding
www.pinktrilliumphotography.com
4 weeks later, we had the privilege of watching our son marry Margret..it was a beautiful August wedding, with a full moon at night! They left the scene in a tunnel of sparklers!
Yesterday though?
I experienced all these things:
A wedding. Not my children's but one I wasn't part of. Or welcomed to.
Pain in my heart, mingled with joy for them.
A death. One of my family members has passed away due to cancer. I was simply too busy~ to get down there and visit~ pain in my heart, mingled with guilt. Oh Jesus, forgive me!
A funeral. A dear Christian woman, who had been my massage therapist through my cancer treatment and beyond, left this world for what is truly her home: Heaven.
No pain in my heart; only sorrow mingled with great joy.
At her funeral (memorial service) a passage of Scripture was shared which
pryed my pain up off the floor of my heart.
It was from the Gospel of John. Jesus was talking to His disciples about leaving them. They didn't understand really. He told them their relationship to Him was like He was the Vine, they were the brances. Without Him, they would bear no fruit.
Then He states: "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me, you may have peace. In this world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
John 16:33
It took a funeral, (a memorial service) for my heart's pain to be lifted. The wedding I wasn't invited to? I now had peace. The kind that Jesus gives during painful storms, trouble and life's pains.
When I walked in the door, my husband told me about my relative's passing..
All I could think of was "in Me you may have peace.."
A wedding. A death. A funeral/memorial service. All in one day.
I find it stunningly wonderous that God chose for me to attend that memorial service, to hear that passage of Scripture and to use it to minister to my aching heart.
Thank You God. I love you. I choose Your peace today
and my heart will "take courage"
because You, that infant in a manger,
grew up to be a man,
and Overcame the World.
He is faithful,
Bonnie
No comments:
Post a Comment