Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The Rocks

My grandmother (on my mother's side) was a little women of Scotch-Irish descent who was born, lived and died in the mountains of Western N.C. Many in today's world would think her simple since she was not very well educated and lived close to the earth. I remember receiving letters from her as a child and much of it would be spelled phonetically. That was fine with me, all I had to do was speak what she wrote and I understood every line.

I spent quite a bit of time with her growing up and she always amazed me in the way she spoke and lived her faith. Was it simple? Yes. But then again, we spend too much time making faith legalistic and hard. She understood her place in God's kingdom.

She used to tell me of the Crucifixion. She would remind me of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and how the Pharisee's were rebuking the crowds telling them to quit making so much noise. She always loved Luke 19:40--"I tell you," He replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." This was the earth, this she knew. At this point she would talk of the earthquakes and darkness that covered the land when Jesus died and then would say, "That was the earth crying"...how vivid a picture of the pain of loss...

When she moved on to the Resurrection there would be joy in her voice as she painted a beautiful picture with her words. Simple woman, simple life, simple faith...isn't that what it is supposed to be?

No comments: