A LEGACY OF FAITH

Feeling a bit melancholy at the moment.... I just broke one of my favorite cooking bowls! A pale green mixing pitcher. Circa 1950. Yes, it was probably considered a collectible of sorts but the value in it for me was not monetary but emotional. It belonged to my mom....

If you've been a follower of my blog, you know my mom has been gone about six years now. Bittersweet parting, she and I. Yet, I have many fond memories of life with Mom including this small green mixing pitcher.  It is one of a few things that belonged to her that I elected to keep after her passing. Many a perfect pancake and cookie concoction came from this little treasure. (And, yes, I found it on eBay today for approximately $50.00).

Today, I dropped it on the kitchen floor when taking it out of the cupboard. It immediately smashed into several large portions and countless shards of glass. In an instant, my bowl was reduced to rubble! Too shambled to put it back together the way it was before. My treasure, emotionally and physically, was no more. A part of my heart broke with it....

I suppose, in a way, it kept my memories of Mom alive. The good ones. It was as if she was still with us in a small way. I still felt attached to her, remembered her in the younger years and the better times. And, I was hoping to pass that bowl on to my daughter. Now what....?

The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through Him might believe.  John 1:7

Now what, indeed! The physical reminders of Mom are fewer and fewer as time passes. I want to hold on to that keepsake!  How breaking it makes me long to see her that much more! For His kingdom to come, for all to be made right, for everything to be put under His feet.

 But our High Priest offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then He sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. There He waits until His enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering He forever made perfect those who are being made holy.  And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For He says,

 “This is the new covenant I will make
    with my people on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
    and I will write them on their minds.”

Then He says,

“I will never again remember
    their sins and lawless deeds.” 

^{Hebrews 10:12-16 NLT}

Yet I know I must pick up the pieces and move on. In the here and now, it helps me to remember the important legacies that I will leave behind for my own children. Not just mixing bowls. The life lessons, the spiritual journey, the laughter, the love.  The intangibles. The treasures worth collecting.

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Matthew 6:21 KJV

To be a mom worth remembering rather than wishing and hoping to forget. No, not a 'perfect' mom. Just a mom who gives it everything she's got, fully relying on His power, pressing deepest into her faith in the weak moments, and flying by His Spirit everyday.  Being an ear and shoulder for them in the tough times, being tough on them and for them in their weak times, and on my knees when they need it and even when they think they don't. And, knowing when to let go and let God fully live in their lives rather than just through me. Passing on warmth, wisdom, wonder, and worthiness. His light. His love. Especially in the dark times when life doesn't make sense.

I will miss my bowl as I do miss my mom. As in all things, however, I must move onward in this journey remembering her limited legacy and doing my utmost in Him to leave something larger than myself for the blessings in my own nest. A treasure in a legacy of something, Someone larger than myself that will be here even when I am no longer. Something that can't be broken, taken away, or lost. Something that truly passes the test of time and transcends into eternity.... A legacy of faith.

"And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."  Deuteronomy 6:7 KJV

"Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." Matthew 13:52 KJV

To Focus on Things Eternal

Where do you focus your heart, your eyes, your time, your resources, your energy.....?

Come now, ye that say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain”;  whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  Instead ye ought to say, “If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.” James 4:13-15

I've been asking myself these hard questions over the past few years.  Motivational questions, soul searching, introspective, life altering questions.  Why am I here really, what is His purpose for me in this life, where am I storing up my treasures and what are those treasures?  Where is my true center of gravity, the things that keeps me anchored to what is true, what is pure, what is everlasting? What do my treasures, my offerings of this earthly existence mean to the One who matters most?! What am I doing in this moment, in this day, in this life that reaches far beyond today? How do I, how can I truly make a difference?

These questions and the answers to them defy gravity, go beyond the scope of time and reach to places we do not comprehend. They are questions that have answers found in eternity and nowhere else. Nowhere else that is of any significance anyway. Far reaching, time expanding, and focusing on the eternal.

In living this existence, we must simultaneously embrace the future and our own eternal purpose. Our hearts must be searching for these answers, this purpose every day.  We must live out eternity as we walk along side Him now knowing we haven't begun to understand what He has in store and let Him lead.  Our hearts must embrace this truth with a yearning that is only satisfied with fulling His will. Nothing else will do. 

A sweet friend recently posed the question: What does eternity look like in your heart?  In living today for the bright hope of eternity's tomorrow, my eternity looks something like this:  

• An infinite longing to be there, live it, breathe it, see and embrace Him even as I walk day-to-day through this fleshly journey, to bask in His light 24/7, where love and justice reign supreme. 
• A aching passion to live this life for Him, with Him, through Him, with Him living in me, with nothing ordinary in seeing through His eyes a divine purpose in all things. 
• An unending thirst to dedicate my life, my time, my resources to His service and for His glory, not just some of it but all of it, to spread His goodness and His name rather than my own, to step out of my comfort zone to follow His call knowing and trusting, to help others, to be His hands and feet, and fulfill His perfect will rather than my own fleshy desires. 
• A overwhelming desire for others to know Him, seek Him, with hearts and lives dedicated to His glory and for others to see Him in me, my life a reflection of Him. 
• A soothing comfort and unexplainable peace in knowing there is something so much better, Someone so much bigger, knowing that this is not the end and that there is something more beyond this life that is unexplainable in mere human terms, infinitely perfect, everlasting and beautiful.....

 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Cor 4:17-18

For we know that if our earthly house, this tabernacle, were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 Cor 5:1

  

Some hard questions to ask. Their answers make a difference now and for all eternity. For you, for others. Are you living your eternity here, now....?