It was exactly one year ago. I walked into my Grandmother's home in a quaint, small town in western Pennsylvania and for the first time, she wasn't waiting excitedly for me. Everything was in the exact place I'd expect it to be. Her glasses and magnifying glass there on the kitchen table which was meticulously protected with her plastic-ish lace table cloth. Her favorite Bible on the end table beside her chair in the living room along with a handwritten list of all her favorite television preachers with notes of the time and channel they were on. Every earthly possession, in each room, exactly as she would have left it. It was as if she was just in another room, as if she had stepped out for but a moment and would return at any second. And while she had indeed stepped out, this time she had crossed over to the other side of eternity. Surrounded by her earthly possessions, I was overwhelmed with how much I already missed her earthly presence.
Today marks one year since I last said goodbye to my "Grandma Joyce." She graduated to heaven on May 14, 2015 and we had her funeral services just a few days later. One hot, Texas, summer day in August of 2014, I vividly remember pulling into my garage and putting my car into park. I had been talking to the Lord and praying for various family members and the Lord very gently told me that this would be Grandma's last year on earth. It was a strong sense and knowing that He wasn't referring to just the year 2014, but before August 2015, she would have already moved to heaven. I remember sitting there in my car, texting my sisters and sharing with them what the Lord had spoken to me, hoping I would be wrong, but grateful for the opportunity to spend those 9 months more purposefully.
The day before the funeral service, I had thought a lot about what I would want to share of my memories of Grandma and what her life meant to me and to all of us. Her life (Like most of our's) wasn't wrapped up in one remarkable thing she did or accomplished for the Lord. It was an everyday kind of greatness of loving the Lord and allowing that love to flow through her to the many she encountered. She was nurturing and generous, but the most important thing she did was continue a legacy of faith for our family. She loved the Lord, she loved her family and she wanted her family to know how much the Lord loved them.
Several years ago, my niece Emme decided she wanted to be baptized, she was only four or five at the time, but she knew what it meant and was determined she was ready. My dad is a pastor and had the privilege of baptizing her and it was a really special moment for our entire family. I watched with tears in my eyes as he explained to her the symbolic and public profession of her faith, of what water baptism meant. A verse Paul spoke to Timothy overwhelmed my heart in that moment,
"I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you." 2 Timothy 1:5.
You see, we have a family legacy of Believers, of followers of Christ. As far back as I can look on my family tree, I see people who loved the Lord. My Grandmother continued that legacy. She passed it on to my father who passed it on to me and now I have the awesome privilege of passing it on to my own daughter. Generation upon generation growing in love and revelation of the Lord.
As I was preparing my notes for the funeral service, I began really contemplating this awesome legacy of faith I have been grandfathered into. Often as I'm meditating on the Word and how it applies to life, the Holy Spirit will give me an analogy and this time was no exception. You see, when my sisters and I were young, one of our favorite summertime activities was to play a game we called "Whirlpool," in our little, aluminum, above-ground swimming pool. We would get everyone to line up around the inner perimeter of the pool and walk around the circle to get the water all moving in the same direction. At first, it was like moving your legs through quick sand, fighting the standing water, getting it to move. But before long, with all of us working together, we had a current started and it was getting easier. By the time we were finished, you would just pick up your legs and enjoy the ride. There was no stopping it. We would try to grasp with white knuckles onto the side walls of the pool but could only manage to hold on for a moment or two before the current swept us away again. The only way to get it to stop was if you turned around and very purposefully stood in the water and held on for as long as you could to slow it down. This was only a remote possibility in our teen years- as children we would often have to call for an adult to rescue us from the current we had created!
Having a family legacy of faith is very much so like our little whirlpool. At some point in my family history, someone pioneered and trudged through dark waters, believing the Lord and His Word. They had a testimony, a story of faith, a story of how God showed Himself on their behalf. A story of how Jesus walked beside them and carried them through the storm. They passed that story and that growing love for the Lord onto the next generation and to the next and to the next. Pretty soon there was a current of faith in my family and by the time I came along, I've pretty much just gotten to pick up my feet and enjoy the ride. My parents, my grandparents, my great-grandparents and those before them set a course for me. They sailed through storms I will never have to face. The current of this legacy of faith is so strong, someone would have to be very purposeful and strong-willed to get out. Even if you try to hang onto the sidewalls of the pool, sooner or later the love and grace of God is just so great it sweeps you back in again.
You see, this very, "little" thing of passing Jesus on to your family is pretty much the greatest legacy you could ever leave. And Grandma did that quite well.
Some grandparents have the resources to leave lucrative inheritances, vacation homes and trust funds. My grandma left me a legacy that will carry me from this earthly life to the very River of Life. As I heard my dad once say, Grandma is not in my past only, but in my future. And not just Grandma, but all of those who have gone before, who have fought the good fight of faith. And somewhere at the end of this all, I will be standing face to face with Jesus Himself and I will have a family legacy to thank for the opportunity of seeing all of heaven and earth's dreams fulfilled in that one moment as I gaze at the very face of the One who gave me everything.
Me with Grandma Joyce
Holiday with Grandma Joyce, November 2014