A very full day from beginning to end, Father, but one that was surely full of Your blessings! From worship to precious time with family, You are a good, good God! Praise Your Holy Name!
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
One of the wonderful ladies in one of my churches was born and raised locally. In fact, the house she lived in for many years still stands…but not for long. Her parents and an aunt who lived there for many years are all with the Savior and the home was sold a few years back. The current owners of the property have built a new home behind the old one and at some point, the old one will come down.
Every time we go to church, we pass this house and with the advancement of spring a magnificent rhododendron (mountain laurel) has been showing off its spectacular array of blooms! (That is an actual picture above!) As you can see it is smack up against the old home. My struggle with the whole thing was telling her about it.
As many people would be, she and her brother are both distraught that the place where so many good memories took place will soon be no more. Memories of mom and dad and the farm and…well a time when life was simple and pure. And now there will be no physical place to attach them to, the memories will only be in their hearts and minds.
Even with all of that, she is a plant lover and I knew she would love seeing the rhododendron in all of its splendor!
The heartaches of life and the joys of life quite often fill the same space and time in our lives. Just because we struggle does not mean that we cannot find joy – quite often clouds do have silver linings! And we must make every effort to embrace the joy we experience and savor every single moment of it for we have no guarantees as to how long the joy will last or even be available to us.
I have a favorite Point of Grace song entitled “How You Live (Turn Up the Music)” and it speaks of embracing life while you can…don’t wait.
The song speaks for itself. Google it. Listen to it. Enjoy the rhododendrons while they are still here.
Wake up to the sunlight with your windows open
Don’t hold in your anger or leave things unspoken
Wear your red dress
Use your good dishes
Make a big mess and make lots of wishes
Have what you want but want what you have
And don’t spend your life lookin back
Turn up the music
Turn it up loud
Take a few chances
And let it all out
Cause you won’t regret it
Lookin back from where you have been
Cause it’s not who you knew
And it’s not what you did
It’s how you lived
So go to the ball games
And go to the ballet
Go see your folks more than just on the holidays
Kiss all your children
Dance with your wife
Tell your husband you love him every night
Don’t run from the truth cause you can’t get away
No, no…
Just face it and you’ll be okay
(refrain)
Ohhhhh
Wherever you are and wherever you’ve been
Now is the time to begin
To give to the needy
And pray for the grieving
Even when you don’t think that you can
Cause all that you do is bound to come back to You
So think of your fellow man
Make peace with God and make peace with yourself
Cause in the end there’s nobody else
(refrain)
No cause it’s not who you knew
and it’s not what you did
It’s how you lived
May 26th, 2019, Sun, 7:13 pm
