It's Been a Year...

Today marks a year of trusting God's purpose

in taking Lucy from this earth...

Thank-you everyone, for your caring and support throughout this year!

God bless you all!

Deut.29:29

 (The verse that Lucy's funeral message was drawn from)

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God,

 but those things which are revealed belong to us 

and to our children forever, 

that we may do all the words of this law.

Dear Lucy...

(Beloved Daughter, sister, wife, sister-in-law,

daughter-in-law, mother, mother-in-law, aunt and Grammy 

and beloved friend, missed by many) 

It's been a year of succumbing to grips

With 'what is', again and again

Of trusting in God when His Sovereignty strips

Sure answers from every 'amen'

It's been a year of  meek joy, sorrow-awed

By loss that has left a huge hole

While finding firsthand, the faithfulness of God

Whose rod and staff comforts the soul

It's been a year of considering oft

This life and what fashions its worth

Before The Intangible is borne aloft

And body returns to the earth

...before the measure of Lifetime is weighed

In a Balance, sacred and just

Before Truth reveals where treasure is laid

Before Soul-to-God, dust-to-dust 

It's been a year of relinquishing 'why?'

To God's higher purpose and will

Until hymns come true, In the Sweet By and By

What a Day That Will be, Peace, Be Still

It's been a year where we felt the full force

Of Hope's/Faith's utter un-commonplace 

Of drinking in moments, more tuned to the Source

Like nectar from fountains of grace

...of four-word love-letters like 'thaw, heat and serve'

'How are you doing', 'I'm praying for you'

While weathering many-a-sharp learning curve

 While suffering love's decreed due  

...while we stuffed our faces into peonies

While we gathered to reminisce 

While we laughed and wept, and made new memories

Honored with , 'Lucy would have loved this!' 

It's been a year of hope's anchor reviewed 

Of love abounding more and more

Why does it take loss to renew gratitude 

For each other, like never before?

It's been a year of hug-warm tender care

Of heartaches no poem can spell 

Of kindness on kindness, of prayer upon prayer

Of tears for the flower that fell 

Of feeling a keen sense of urgency

For all still like sheep, wandering 

 Ignoring impending eternity

As if it were not a sure thing 

 

It's been a year of learning to let go

While holding the part left behind

Of frames filled with pictures and echoes that flow

Through sorrow and joy intertwined 

It's been a year of oft coming to terms

With what we can never undo 

While leaning on the everlasting arms

Of God, who is faithful and true

It's been a year of learning to revere

A law we should never dismiss

Of, 'If the Lord wills we shall live and go here

Or there, and do that or this'  

Janet Martin

James 4:13-15

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, 

spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.”

 14You do not even know what will happen tomorrow!

 What is your life? 

You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Instead you ought to say,

 “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

Deut.33:27

The eternal God is your refuge,
And underneath are the everlasting arms;

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

Be Still, My Soul