Sunday, April 28, 2019

GROWING SEEDS: "The Necessity of the Relationship"



When Chuck died five months ago, several dozen women showed up at a local coffee shop the next day to love and support me.  They placed their strong arms around my burdened shoulders and they mixed their tears with mine  They clinked coffee mugs as they toasted funny stories about Chuck and they stood together while they signed their names to a piece of paper around a long table of girlfriends....a piece of paper with a sign-up sheet to take Liz to the Ark Encounter, a life-size replica of Noah's Ark, in the Spring...to do what she and Chuck had never been able to do.

You see, Chuck and I had tried for three years to get to the Ark...but each time, "life" happened that prevented us from getting there.  As we tried once again to visit the Ark this past October, we found ourselves halfway there...somewhere between Memphis and Nashville...when he became ill for the last time.  We were forced to turn around and head back home.  Two weeks later, he was gone.  

As I've toured this incredible Ark in Kentucky with these 13 amazing friends instead of my husband this week, I have discovered a rare love between women.  Not just for me....but for each other.  It reminds me of the 12 men and Jesus who traveled together for several years learning about the value in the relationship...the necessity of the relationship....much like I have discovered with each of these women.  

I have also discovered as I walked through the doors of this Ark, that Jesus truly has been my Ark.  My place of safety and rescue from the impending storm, just as it was for Noah and his family. He is the invisible force...the place we put our Trust and Faith in when our lifeboat capsizes...when life doesn't turn out like we expected or death knocks on our front door.  

And sometimes it takes a confident step of Faith to walk through the tall open gopher-wood doors of the Ark to find Him standing there, offering you safety from the storms of this life...peace from the chaos of this world...and to hear Him saying...to you and to me"Blessed are those who have not seen....and yet have come to believe."  

My friend, walk through that large open door to your Ark of safety...Jesus; it's your only protection from the storms that are coming. 

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