This is the story of how something
incredibly evil, brought great encouragement into my day.
This past tuesday I took the girls I
nanny to the park to run off some energy. Besides us, the only others
at the park were another girl, about the age of six, and her
grandmother. We had exchanged glances throughout the time that we had
been there, but had not spoken to each other.
I began to chase my girls around the
playground threatening them with the wrath of the tickle monster. All
of a sudden a bee began to swarm around me. Once I thought that I had
walked away from it I rested my hand on my shoulder, only to realize
that is where the bee also decided to rest. He injected me with his
poison then left me there to suffer.
Now I do not know if you know this, but
bee stings hurt... bad... REALLY BAD. I began to bite my tongue as I
thought of several choice words that I wanted to say in that moment.
The sweet grandmother saw what my
attacker had done to me and she ran up to help. She told me that she
had some sweet tea in her car (“because good southerners always
have sweet tea”) that had some ice cubes left in it. She ran to
her car and then to my rescue.
As I sat on the bench beside her with
the ice on my wound, she began to ask me questions. I told her about
my church and why I had moved down to Nashville. Once she found out
I was a believer she began to tell me about her faith as well. She
told me that she grew up in the very southern part of florida and in
her town there was only one church. She said that she loved going up
to church but was taught a great deal of legalism there. It was
characterized by rules and guilt. The sweet grandmother looked at me
and said “I am a seventy year old woman and the Lord is just now
removing those thoughts from my mind.”
To some people this may seem like a
terrible thing... “Why did God let her go almost an entire lifetime
living in bondage to man made rules?”
I think it is just the opposite. We
should be rejoicing in her statement! This is such an encouragement
to me as a believer that the Lord will continue to work on me until
the day I leave this earth. No matter where I am at in my walk or
just life in general, The Lord is not finished with me. He still has
many things to teach me. He has many things to reveal to me. And I
can almost guarantee that there is legalism in my life that he will
have to remove. Throughout the entirety of our lives the Lord will be
sanctifying us.
Application:
-Sometimes terrible things in our live
are for our good. If that bee would have never stung me, I would
have never gotten to have such a great conversation with such a great
woman.
-Never think that the Lord is through
sanctifying you and making you into the image of his Son. He will
continue to change us until our death.
-On that same not, Never give up on
another person. Just because they are in the last years of their
life does not mean that the Lord cannot change them. There is not a
soul that the Lord cannot save, no matter what their age is.
-Finally, as I was telling her about my
fiance she asked me “When is your beau moving down here?”
WHAT? MY BEAU? Why do we not use that
term anymore?!?!?! I put this in the application section because that
word is now inserted into my vocabulary. You may also use it. You're
welcome.
