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We should never waste the precious time that God has given us on the earth.
We are to use each minute to our benefit blessing those we love and care
for and encouraging those who are down or discouraged. We are to use our
life to better the lives of others and show them how great they truly are.
We who follow the Lord Jesus Christ, are to lead our life by example and
love others unconditionally just as the Lord loves us. Imparting the love
that you have in your heart towards someone else will be remembered far
longer than you may even believe. Be encouraged to do good deeds and create
memories with those whom you love because memories last forever whereas
this life is not promised even one more day. (Galatians 6:1-10) (James 4:13-15)
I hope today's message encourages your heart to make known your love so
that those closest to you can hear for themselves the love and care that
you have for them.
GRAMMIE'S GERANIUMS
Geraniums and marigolds were two flowers my mother couldn't tolerate. As
a kid, I tended to agree with her. They were a far cry from roses.
As the years passed like sand through the hour glass, I didn't give geraniums
more than a passing thought.
While I was in France with my Army husband, I planted flowers by our front
door step. No geraniums or marigolds -- only sweet scented flowers.
While pulling weeds from my small garden one day in June, my husband
arrived home just before noon to tell me my grandmother was ill and in the
hospital. Of course, my first thought was getting home to see her, but I
was way “too pregnant” for the airlines to allow my emergency flight to
the states.
When we got word that my grandmother had passed away, I went into false
labor. Later that week, I delivered my precious daughter.
When Lorena was a year old, we were finally shipped back to American soil.
It was a bitter sweet home coming because my beloved grandmother wouldn't
be there to welcome us back. My two younger children would never know her
or be held and hugged by her.
While showing off my three children to my favorite uncle, he asked me if
I'd like a “trinket” from Grammie's jewelry box. I was thrilled to be
able to visit Grammie's house once again. I'd spent many happy childhood
hours there -- playing the piano, playing Monopoly with Uncle Reggie, or
exploring the magical upstairs of Grammie's sea captain type house and
marveling over the beautiful hand pieced quilts and crocheted bedspreads,
the oak dresser with oval mirror, and bath tub with feet.
I loved looking from the alcove window in Grammie's downstairs bedroom to
watch fishermen as they came to sell their lobsters at my uncle's wharf.
I loved sitting at the window seat in the dining room and looking out at
the ever changing ocean as sea gulls glided overhead making their gull
noises for Grammie to toss them a tidbit. To me, her house was truly an
elegant place to be. The first time I slept over in the guest bedroom, I
felt like a princess right out of a fairy tale.
Her house was always filled with intriguing smells -- cookies, pies and
cakes, Evening in Paris cologne in deep blue bottles, Spic and Span, and
her ever present house plants.
I coveted the Easter lilies, geraniums, and a huge, gorgeous Christmas
cactus. Grammie had had the cactus for eons, and she'd given me many
slips from it to start. Every time one succumbed, she'd give me another
and warn me again not to over water it.
When, at last, the door to Grammie's house was swung opened, though my mind
knew better, my heart expected her welcoming arms to reach out to us and
pull us into her inviting kitchen.
“Sit a spell and have a piece of pie,” I could hear her say.
What I didn't expect, after her home had been closed up for over a year,
was to be greeted by the spicy scent of geraniums.
It seemed as if the house had been holding its breath all that time, and
when the door was opened, it exhaled. The powerful scent of geranium
washed over my very soul like a crashing wave from the Atlantic at the
height of a storm.
The night before Grammie's passing, a strong wind shook the cement walled
house we lived in and caused me a restless night.
The morning was peaceful, sunny and bright. When I noticed our Spanish
neighbor across the street, I commented about the howling wind of the night
before. He looked at me rather strangely and told me he'd been up several
times during the night and added in broken English, “No Honey, calm...No
wind last night.”
When the news of Grammie's passing came, I wasn't surprised. I felt the
wind had been forewarning me of the sad news to come.
Had the geranium scent really lingered in Grammie's house all that time?
Or had it been tucked into the recesses of my memory waiting for the right
moment to emerge?
Whether the geranium scent was real or imagined, it spoke volumes to me.
Grammie's physical presence may be missing from my life, but the essence of
her love, like perfume from a beautiful rose, would remain in my heart forever.
By Kay Seefeldt
Read and meditate on these scriptures:
1 John 4:18-21 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out
fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in
love. We love Him, because He first loved us. If a man say, I love God,
and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this
commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”
Romans 12:9-10 “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is
evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another
with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another.”
Hebrews 13:1-3 “Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember
them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity
as being yourselves also in the body.”
1 John 4:10-12 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved
us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God
so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at
any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is
perfected in us.”
All of these scriptures can be found in the King James Version Bible.
Today’s Selected Poem: THE SMILE STARTER
Click here to read --- http://www.Godswork.org/inpoem161.htm
Today’s Selected Testimony: AN EASTER MIRACLE
Click here to read --- http://www.Godswork.org/testimony172.htm
In Christ’s Service,
Dwayne Savaya
Gods Work Ministry |
