I really shook up my Bible study ladies yesterday. We have had about four deaths of well-known people in the last month and it had put us in a contemplative mood. I said: ”Let us now pray for the next one in our group who will die.”
You have to admire my courage if not my tactlessness.
I had had a similar thing happen at a Catholic graveside funeral and I know how it shook me up when the priest said exactly that.
Friday morning I had been reading to my ladies Max Lucado’s And the Angels were Silent, Chapter 6, “Risky Love.” It speaks of taking chances…of not being afraid of the future…of Mary in the Bible pouring perfume over Jesus, not caring what it cost.
It speaks of the timeline of our lives and what we are “saving” for and why? Scripture tells us our days are numbered and we are to live them to the fullest.
Now this is hardly the kind of article you would expect from one raised in the ‘30’s…those hard depression years which have marked every survivor. But sometimes we need to live a little more or even live a lot more!
I have in my refrigerator a small jar of maple syrup…the real thing from eastern Canada. I decided a long time ago that I would save it for a special pancake celebration. (Yes, pancakes can be just as much a celebration as a turkey dinner.)
Guess what? That was eight years ago. My husband never did taste that maple syrup and neither will I…it sits there as a reminder of just how silly you can get at times…when you carry your “savings” too far.
The ladies spoke of instances in their lives when they had been recipients of “risky love” and one lady shared that she had wanted so badly to take guitar lessons and a dear friend visited and presented her with a much treasured guitar that she was no longer using… It takes a special kind of person to give so selflessly.
I remember as a child watching my mother fix a plate of food for a man sitting on our back door steps. That small gesture gave me the desire to help others and eventually pushed me into hospital volunteering. I’m sure Mom had no idea that her gesture would affect me like that.
Our children watch us more than we realize. And of course we say things and sometimes we have to “eat our words.” Daughter Lyn is constantly reminding me that “Well, Mom, you always said…” Ouch…how those things come back to haunt me.
“Risky-love” is nothing new to parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents. The family is probably the greatest recipient of “risky love.”
So love a little bit more, laugh a little bit more and trust a little bit more…God has said “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” And He won’t.
Image: By User:Miguel Andrade (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
