A Spiritual Legacy
I know that when I write this blog, most people want to be updated about our ministry, our kids, and what GOD is doing in our lives. But as I write, I also want to include some personal things and lessons that GOD has taught me even outside of All Things New. With that said, I wanted to write a blog post today about my Grandmother on her birthday. Just so you know, Granny is definitely (I am 100% sure of this) in Heaven right now, in the presence of her Savior Jesus Christ and there is no place that she would rather be. I was listening to a song the other day that a person wrote in honor of his grandmother and I immediately wished that I could write songs so that I could honor my Grandmother in the same way, but sadly I cannot. So this is the best I can do.
One of the best and most vivid memories I have of Granny is sitting next to her in church every Sunday at First Christian Church in LaGrange, GA (where I was saved and baptized). We always sat on the back row, we always sang out of the same hymnal, she always had one of those tins of peppermint, and she always let me drink a little bit of her coffee (which I might add was very cold and completely horrible tasting but I drank it anyway). I remember how she loved to sing and how she always had her Bible with her every single Sunday no matter what. I also remember how, after she died, I got to have some of her books which included some works by Josephus (the Hebrew scholar) and some other very scholarly Biblical material. She was a student of GOD’s Word and she loved it very much. I also remember how caring she was. She always wanted to help people and would do whatever she could to make sure other people were taken care, even at the expense of herself. I know that she raised wonderful kids, not the least of which is my Mom who has been there for me no matter what (and I know she learned that from Gran). She accepted my Dad into her family like he was one of her sons, and I have never seen my Dad more comfortable around anyone else in the whole world than his mother-in-law. And most of all, we always had pop-tarts covered in butter for breakfast and hot dogs for lunch every time we spent the night there which was very often. She was one of the few people in this world who I knew loved me completely unconditionally, no matter what!
As I write this, I am a little sad that she is not here to see where GOD is leading us right now. I can picture telling her our plans and I can picture her reaction. Her first reaction would be to try and talk us out of it so that she could be with us more. But that would only be a knee-jerk reaction that would not last. And immediately, she would begin praying for us, giving us whatever she could, and making sure that I knew she was behind me 100%. She would be so proud.
While I am a little sad, there is another stronger feeling that I have – joy. I have joy that she is with the person that she loved the most – Jesus Christ. I have joy that I knew her, that I loved her, and that I was given this legacy of love from a person who cared about me unconditionally. It was 100% my decision to follow Jesus Christ. Nobody can make that decision for us, and I remember specifically coming to know Him for the first time. But I also know that I always had someone in my corner. Someone who was praying for me, loving me, and wanting me to know the Savior that she knew. I had the legacy of someone who loved Jesus Christ with all of her heart, and she did her best to pass that legacy down to my Mom who passed that legacy down to me. Thank you Granny, happy birthday, and I can only hope that I impact and influence other people for the Kingdom of GOD like you did!