As I attempt to recover from yesterday’s excitement, I have been thinking about a few things….how God can always turn ashes into beauty and how those things impact the legacy we leave. So if you are my friend or follow me on Facebook you know by all the recent posts, that the adoption of our precious daughter, Rheagan, was final yesterday! Praise the Lord from whom ALL blessings flow! This morning Rheagan got to open some really neat gifts from dear friends and relatives….who cannot read the fine print! After all, the invitation did say the greatest gift was your presence not presents! But, thank you for ignoring that because in your obedience to Him and not to me, we’ve been blessed even more!
In one large gift sack given by a dear “Uncle & Aunt” of mine, we found a very precious handmade apron & chef’s hat…to which we be will donning for upcoming Christmas baking! Also in the bag, we found a handmade blanket and pillow. One might think it isn’t much, but to me it’s much more than the few yards of fabric and thread…it’s threads of our lives, woven together to help tell a story of ashes to beauty and a story of a legacy. Thinking of these gifts and how they are the first heirlooms from my side of the family Rheagan can keep and pass on to her children, I began thinking of the heirlooms I’ve been given and what legacies they represent.
If you open my treasure chest of heirlooms you will find many things handmade, hand sewn from members of both my mom’s and dad’s sides of my family. One thing that might jump out at you is the bright yellow and green afghan. Wow, they are bright…what was I thinking when I told my Granny (my dad’s mom) that my favorite colors were green and yellow? It was probably my 3rd grade year when my Granny asked Aunt Happy to crochet an afghan for me. I remember how awesome I thought it was when my Granny brought it home from a visit to Aunt Happy’s in Arkansas. Although the yellow and green afghan doesn’t bring much joy to me today, the memories and the legacy it can tell my children warms my heart. You see, the legacy of this afghan, like Rheagan’s gifts, is much more than just the brightly colored yarn. My Granny lost her momma at the age of three and her dad at the age of nine. Granny was an orphan at a very young age…until Aunt Happy took her in and cared for her. I really hadn't thought about it before today, but Aunt Happy was probably the first person that modeled James 1:27 for me. Of course, I only witnessed their relationship as adults, but even after my Granny was grown, Aunt Happy was in a sense her “momma” and in turn was the only “Great-Grandma” I ever had. So there, in that really bright afghan lies a part of the legacy lived out, a story of ashes to beauty, and a legacy left for me to live out and leave for my children and their children.
If only that was the end…For years I’ve heard the story of when my mom’s dad, Grandpa Walter, and his family came from the Indian reservation in North Carolina. How they came to Oklahoma in wagons and because of the death of my Grandpa’s Aunt, they brought two orphans Johnny & Glenn (my Grandpa’s cousins) with the family. These orphaned brothers were raised with my Grandpa and his siblings and even though they would actually be cousins, we’ve always considered them uncles, after all, they were like brothers to my Grandpa. Again, a story of ashes to beauty and James 1:27 being lived out in my family long before my existence, but being shared in a legacy. One day when I’m old and can’t remember any of the legacies to share, Rheagan will have hopefully seen it lived out and when she opens up her treasure chest of heirlooms, she can share the legacy and the stories of how James 1:27 was lived out in the lives of her family before her…the lives of her forever family. I hope when she pulls the apron & chef’s hat and the little pillow & blanket from her treasure chest, she will remember to share how it was given to her by an “Aunt” and an “Uncle” who was once an orphan. You see, the “Uncle” that gave the gift to Rheagan was the same “Uncle” Johnny who came to Oklahoma in the wagon with Grandpa Walter’s family!
Thank God for the beauty from our ashes and for family legacies!
