Friday, May 2, 2014

Everlasting Love, Eternal Prayers

This week I lost a cousin and her husband, Margaret and Frank Hendrix,  in a tragic accident.  A blown tire in an oncoming truck only took an instant to cause the collision that ended their lives, but they live on in a better place with their Lord.

There was a very nice article written about their lives in the local paper.  My cousin, Margaret Ann (as a cousin I have the right to use her first and middle name just as she had the right to call me Timmy) was a long time elementary teacher here in Victoria.  The paper interviewed several former students about her life and her impact.  In the article, one former student related the following encounter she had with Margaret Ann long after her elementary years that led Margaret to pray with her former pupil.

"I was going through a divorce at the time, and it  had been a bad day for me," she said.  "I was trying hard not to cry, but she gave me a hug, told me to let it out, and as I cried, [Margaret] prayed over me.  I can't put into words what that single act of kindness meant to me."

Long after we are gone, what will remain at work in this world?  The love we showed and the prayers we prayed.  How and who we loved remain because people and love are eternal (1 Corinthians 13:13).  The prayers we prayed also outlive us because they touch the eternal.

The day they died was a pretty normal - until the accident.  The day Margaret prayed with her student was pretty normal for her as well - that is the kind of person she was.  Yet both of those days now are now marked in eternity; one in tragedy, one in kindness. 

On normal days, we do eternal things.  We love people who live eternally.  We offer prayers that live on in eternity too.  We may never see those moments coming or even recognize them when we are gone but they come none the less.

Today and everyday, we can love and we can pray and we can touch eternity?  How have you done something eternal this week?  Join me Sunday as we talk about the places in life where, "All we can do is pray."  We will find those are not moments of powerless but of touching eternity.

for the journey...

Tim


 

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