Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Leaving a Spiritual Legacy

See how I'm bent down, drawing near, and holding the hand of that lovely? That hand held mine in the soul darkness of my Gethsemane.
Those arms stretched wide and drew close when God felt cruel and I felt forgotten.
That mouth spoke l i f e, and t r u t h, and h e a l i n g when my jumbled mind was shrouded in darkness, confusion, and muddled in the wrong storyline.  Her life-words, His life-words, dismantled the old wobbly structure. Undid Susie you're too much. Hammered out Susie the good girl, into Susie the one who is in process. Layed the foundation for Susie, the one in whom Christ dwells. The one in whom Christ lives. The one for whom Christ suffered and died. The One who makes all things new.
Look at that radiant beauty! It's the beauty that beams from another place. It's the eyes that glow and illuminate life! The eyes that no plastic surgery could ever replicate, for they are eyes that have gone up the mountain of Sinai and come down to tell of the g l o r y, come down to illuminate the
h o l y, the eyes that have seen God in her own dark Gethsemane, that have held the hand of her suffering Savior and said, "I recieve. I take. I drink. Because you gave, you endured, and you drank."

She, the one that taught me that I must enter the darkness--alone and apart, naked, tattered, and maimed by sin to find the l i g h t.  For the One who makes all things new, turns aloneness into the safe place of solitude, takes tattered rags and makes a bridal gown, smooths out scars but leaves just enough to remind me, "When you are weak, I am strong."

She was the one who gently reminded me in the ache of singleness, that there was no shame in the need. The ache was good and the longing important. The idol, however, must be dismantled for true love to be found.
She courageously welcomed me into her home, into her story, into the day-in and day-out life of a wife, mother, mentor, counselor, and imperfect disciple. 

She lived out before me the drinking of the cup and the soul feeding of the bread. The blood and the body, week in and week out. Delivered by the one she loved the most and hurt the most--her husband, John.

"Take! Eat! Christ's body--broken for you." Offered by the wrinkled, calloused hands that had held guns in Vietnam, drank from glasses that held hope to numb the pain, hands that had held the Word when the flesh seemed truer than the new life.

"Take! Drink! Christ's blood--spilled out for you." Offered by the man who held and cradled this mighty Christ warrior when the cost felt high and the night felt like their would be no dawn. Offered by the hands that now fight in Christ's kingdom, that drink from the Spirit, that hold onto the Word and see the new life sprouting forth.

And they handed us the bread. And they offered us the wine. And they welcomed us to the table, "Take! Eat! Christ's body broken for you. Take! Drink! Christ's spilled blood for you. Do as we've learned. Offer it to one another. Reflect the true gospel to one another. Feed each other."

For marriage, if not anything else, is living at the table. Day-in, day-out. Holding another's hand that is wrinkled by time, calloused by hardship, and scarred from a history where it was used for harm rather than good. But in Christ, it is holding the hand that is being renewed by love, facing hardship and coming out stronger, and letting go of the past to be told a different story for the now and the future.

Thank you John and Patti for living out your marriage story before me. Thank you for spiritually parenting me. Thank you for welcoming me to the table and showing me the depth and breadth of that place of remembrance. Thank you for believing in me, fighting for me, and calling forth new life! Thank you for pouring out your lives and leaving such a beautiful and diverse spiritual legacy (and teaching me to do the same). Thank you for being Christ for me! Thank you for helping mold and shape me into the wife I am today!

I love you! We love you! Oh taste and see, the Lord is good!


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes. Thank you, John and Patti! Love, Rosemary and
Richard