I went to my sweet friend Towanda Mason's funeral today. She was ninety-two and a half. She lived such an incredible life and to know her truly was to know Jesus. She was my mother's first friend here in Oklahoma when we moved from California in 1993. She grew up in California also, so she and my mum clicked immediately. When we moved to Owasso in 2004 and started going to Owasso First Assembly again, all of us kids were older so we formed friendships of our own with her. We would go visit with her for hours and she would tell us wonderful stories of her life; stories about her husband Dan and how they eloped to Las Vegas. She'd tell us stories about how faithful God was to her family growing up, from her being born dead and coming back to life, to how he'd provided for them when they had nothing. She told us how her son, grandchildren, and great grand children had all come to know the Lord. It is amazing to me that she lived such a wonderful, full life. I want to be just like her, and seeing how passion she was for Jesus and family showed me how to do just that.
Although is it never pleasant to go to a funeral, it was so incredible to celebrate her life with people that knew her best. They played a slideshow of pictures documenting her entire life, and she was wearing a gorgeous, simple dress in the majority of the pictures. It inspired me to do a few vintage-style dresses for my spring line. I'm going to dedicate these designs to my wonderful friend, Towanda Julia Mason. She always gave me jewelry or an outfit for Christmas, and this is the best way I can think to honor such a wonderful, beautiful, God-fearing woman.
As I was sitting there looking at the pictures of her, a stunning young thing, I realized she was the perfect example of what it meant to be a beautiful woman of God, inside and out. Her death was not a loss for her, but a gain. "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:8) I am so thankful that God gave her to this earth to brighten with her real joy.
I have never been so convinced in my life that God cares about me. He knows where I am, and I matter to Him. I am so grateful that he is has done everything he needed to in order to get me back in His love. I have had such a hard time recently understanding the purpose of love, and the reason why God allows us to care about someone, only to be hurt by them or lose them due to circumstances beyond our control. But I understand now a little better than I did before. A father disciplines and rewards his child because he loves them and wants them to understand the consequences of right and wrong. In the same manner, our Abba takes us through "the valley of the shadow of death" so that we draw near to Him for comfort.
I am at the point where I acknowledge my insignificance. I know I am so small and seemingly meaningless in this universe. But in the presence of Jesus Christ, that doesn't matter. Just like Horton the elephant heard the cries of the Whos on that tiny speck of dust, so Jesus does when I cry out to Him in my time of despair. Because he loves me. Why? I'll never truly understand, but it doesn't change the facts.
Just because I've never personally seen every continent or country in the world, it does not change the fact that they are real. I have faith that they exist because I have seen pictures, heard stories, and known people that came from those other lands. It would be irrational for me to say those places and people don't exist simply because I've never seen them with my own eyes. It is the same for my faith in Jesus Christ. I have never seen Him, but I have read the Word of God, heard incredible stories of healing and divine occurrences, and I've seen His love embodied by people like Towanda Mason. It would be nonsensical for me to say He does not exist when I've seen how radically, unconditionally, and powerfully His love has proven itself to be through the lives of others around me. Towanda Mason is one of the reasons why I do not doubt that the love of God is real and attainable. I truly hope you know Him like this, because nothing else matters anymore. Sure there are things that I want to be in control of, but I own nothing anyway. All that I have is not my own, body and life included. He's just loaning it to me while I'm here.
Jah Love, K
"But I understand now a little better than I did before. A father disciplines and rewards his child because he loves them and wants them to understand the consequences of right and wrong. In the same manner, our Abba takes us through "the valley of the shadow of death" so that we draw near to Him for comfort."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure i agree with this.
I agree that we are supposed to learn from our mistakes and experiences, but it's not God who takes us through "the valley of the shadow of death". "Though !I! walk through the valley of the shadow of death". People make conscious decisions to do things because we have a God-given free will. Of course God is right by our side and provides us with the comfort we need, but it isn't Him who leads us into the valley in the first place.
I personally love the analogy of our relationship with God as our Father and we are children. I've had many conversations with people using this analogy and I feel like it best describes our relationship with him.
"A father disciplines and rewards his child because he loves them and wants them to understand the consequences of right and wrong."
This is 100% true and i agree with it all the way. But a father doesn't put his hand on the stove to teach him that it is hot. If the child puts his hand on the stove, he will learn quickly that it is hot. A father doesn't make his child do bad things so that he can discipline the child to teach him the consequences of right and wrong. In the same way, God doesn't take us to our lowest point so that we can find comfort and security in him. God doesn't lead us into temptation so that we can prove ourselves to him. There is plenty of shit that we can fall into without his help ;)
I know it isn't a huge ground-breaking point that i just made, but I think that people blame God too often for their own problems. When we realize that God isn't the one who is making our lives crappy, it's easier to reach out to him when we are in need. If my dad put my hand on the stove to teach me that it was hot, I definitely wouldn't go running to him when i got burnt. Just food for thought i guess.
Totally valid point, and I completely agree with you. I didn't mean for it to seem like I hold God at fault. I think we believe the same thing, but I just didn't develop my thought as fully as I needed to. Sorry about that.
ReplyDelete"In the same manner, our Abba takes us through 'the valley of the shadow of death' so that we draw near to Him for comfort."
Death is inevitable. God doesn't lead us "to the stove" so we can get burned. He allows us to make our mistakes (free will) and experience the consequences of our sin so that we can learn from them. "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23) sums up that we all must die because these earthly bodies were corrupt from the moment we first began. We see, from the end of others' lives, that we are not eternal in these bodies, and that there is something to hope for beyond the struggles of this world.
You're absolutely right that we do not need God to help us fall into temptation, but He knows where we are. Always. With every mistake we make and step we take that puts more and more distance between our hearts and His, He knows. And I MEANT that He leads us out of it. He leads us out of our crap when we call out for help, because He's been waiting for us to do so the entire time we were digging ourselves deeper.
Also, He allows us to see death and feel the pain of separation from these broken vessels when we lose people that we're close to. Too many people blame God for death, when He isn't even the one that chose it. We were. This all goes back to original sin, which we need not discuss because I think we're both trying to make the same point, just in a round-about way. :)
haha, ok good. I'm glad we're on the same page. Even though we might have different ways of saying it or explaining it, we both believe the same thing. Exciting!! You have a very beautiful way of explaining the Gospel, and the Bible in general.
ReplyDeleteBravo on this post. I think you made your point very clear.
Thank you very much. I tried really hard to clarify.
ReplyDelete