Series: Renewal!
Psalm 104:10-11 ESV
Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV
The first time I saw fresh water flowing from the mountains to the valleys between the hills I was about ten years old. The state was Colorado. John F. Kennedy was President of the United States.
I was fascinated by the beauty of the mountains, but what I remember most was the clear water in the streams.
In the Midwest we had great mighty water sources like the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers, but the water was not clear. Even if you stuck your feet in the water, you could hardly see your toes because of the silt.
Mountain water is another story!
Seeing clear mountain water for the first time was a surprise.
Psalm 104:10-11 tells us, “You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills; they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.”
When I was a bit older I learned that my dad’s grandmother and grandfather homesteaded land in Montana just after the turn of the century, around 1910. They loaded up a covered wagon and took my grandfather (their only child) from the Midwest to live in Montana.
I knew my grandfather well and so I was always fascinated by the story about the place where he lived when he was a boy. While I did not ask my grandfather (or my father) what route they took, it was most like the Oregon trail.
The trail left Independence, Missouri and headed west through Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and once the arrived at Guernsey Ruts in Wyoming they would have headed straight north into Montana. I always wondered if they had to travel by themselves from southern Wyoming into Montana by themselves.
I wondered that because I’ve taken that route by car and it’s rough open country even now.
The landscape when they traveled to Montana would have been mostly untouched and just as God created it.
Now to the point…
I knew my great-grandmother. As a child I would sometimes go with my grandparents to see her on Sundays.
She was a woman of faith. In her lifetime she was known as a church-going woman.
I remember her for her kind quiet ways.
She was a quiet woman who spoke softly.
I knew after they stayed in Montana for a while, my great-grandfather died of pneumonia. I was told eventually she took my grandfather back to Missouri where she lived out her days.
In her lifetime she lost her husband, traveled back to independence, Missouri with her young son, and eventually remarried.
Then her second husband preceded her in death.
Her only son preceded her in death.
Still, she was a woman of quiet faith.
To the end she did not waiver.
She did not speak of the difficulties she’d had in her lifetime, but she did ponder about something when she’d look out the window from her room.
She had seen mighty springs gush forth in valleys. She drank from clear cold water that came from the hills.
She would have witnessed wild beasts grazing near the river edge.
She traveled along the Oregon trail before there were roads.
I have imagined a hundred different things she did that today would be considered difficult and too much to bear, but she did them with grace and she relied on God’s help.
When she buried her first husband, she turned to God. When she buried her second husband, God carried her grief with her. When she buried her only son she wept (I know that because I was there) and she relied on God to get her through the awful grief and loss.
I knew her as a quiet kind woman who did not complain.
I remember her gently holding my hand and smiling at me.
I remember her touching me.
Yes, when I think of renewal I remember my great-grandmother who had suffered great loss but who turned to God for healing each time.
Knowing what I know now (but did not know then), more than likely she was praying for me as she stroked my hands.
It’s possible she was asking Jesus to carry me all the days of my life. I imagine she prayed that I would be able to bear great suffering by learning to lean on Him who is able.
It’s even possible that she prayed the words from Ephesians 3:20-21 over me so that I would know the power and comfort of the mighty God she served, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
I’m not positive, but I know the hope and desire I have for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren (who are not yet born) as I pray for them. I pray they will know God.
Spiritual Practice: Pray
Pray for Your people who will come after you are gone.
In God, Deborah
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