by Emma Turner 

 

I feel like I’ve been taking a ride on a roller coaster without leaving the couch. It is amazing how just sorting through old pictures and clippings can cause such emotional ups and downs. I really want to make a family scrapbook.

 

Ah-h-h, I love this picture of my dad sitting there under a big oak tree, looking so proudly at that huge pile of sweet, juicy watermelons he had grown. I can almost taste them now and feel the juice running down my arm. Here’s one of Jim at the age of 12, holding his baby sister. Jim always told me this picture was taken within days of his dad being killed in a car/train accident.

 

Rummaging again through the collection of snapshots of my life, I see the country church in which I grew up. My favorite spot was on the piano bench next to my mother as she played for services. At this church I trusted Christ as my Savior from sin at the age of eight and a number of years later walked down the aisle after church one Sunday morning to become Jim’s bride.

 

Memories cascade around me on the couch as I remember again the day each of our children was born and so quickly they grew up. How wonderfully the Lord blessed us those years in serving Him together as a family. Then, one by one, the children were gone, on with education, marriage, and serving Him elsewhere.

 

The same pictures that bring so many memories of happy years with family and friends also bring tears to my eyes. How can a full life of God’s abundant blessings bring so much sadness now? I feel like in looking at the pictures I relived my whole life, and so many people I have known and loved are no longer here. They have gone ahead of me. And then it hits me: the best is yet to come!

 

…eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

 

As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. (Psalm 17:15)

 

Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

 

This Lenten season I’m thankful for CABC, our pastors, staff, and church family, who model grace day after day to one another, the local community, and various ministry partners. As we celebrate God’s grace, may we be messengers and imitators of God’s grace. May we love, accept, and forgive others, just as God did for us.

 

“To accept grace is to accept the vow to give it.” Max Lucado