Surrounded...
Some years ago my husband John and I visited Grandmother Daniels Taylor who lived in Huntingdon PA. We had such a delighful time with her. We were Seminary students at the time and she proudly shared us with her friends. She took us to see a woman who was a friend of Mother Daniels. She said she was a good friend. We went into her house and began to 'chat'. (Chat is where you talk but what is exchanged is of minimal weight or importance.)
The conversation shifted...She began to tell us about her son who had died earlier that year. He was a teenager, it was an accident if I remember correctly. There had been no time for Good-bye. She said she had moved through the service and then into the time after as if she were in a deep fog. It was as if she couldn't find her way into the next day. This kind of grief is not unusual at the loss of a child---or anyone we really loved. She said she had finally taken to walks in the afternoon. One late winter afternoon she was walking and she had an overwhelming spell of sadness. She began to cry and couldn't walk any further down the road toward her house. She said she just collapsed by the side of the road on the little hillside beside the road. She said eventually she fell asleep in her tears.
She said she woke, she didn't think she had been there long, and she looked up at the world around her. It was red all around her, like blood, all around her. She didn't know what was happening. She thought of Jesus on the cross and his blood shed for her and his presence in her life. She thought of his love for her and for her son. She thought of how God had known the pain of God's own son dying. She said she began to cry again, this time though they were tears that brought her peace. Suddenly the whole red world around her began to move, she began to hear the chirping of birds. She came to fullest consciousness and realized that she was lying in the grass with a flock of robins surrounding her. They had never had Robins in Pennsylvania that time of year.
Miracles of God's presence
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005
The conversation shifted...She began to tell us about her son who had died earlier that year. He was a teenager, it was an accident if I remember correctly. There had been no time for Good-bye. She said she had moved through the service and then into the time after as if she were in a deep fog. It was as if she couldn't find her way into the next day. This kind of grief is not unusual at the loss of a child---or anyone we really loved. She said she had finally taken to walks in the afternoon. One late winter afternoon she was walking and she had an overwhelming spell of sadness. She began to cry and couldn't walk any further down the road toward her house. She said she just collapsed by the side of the road on the little hillside beside the road. She said eventually she fell asleep in her tears.
She said she woke, she didn't think she had been there long, and she looked up at the world around her. It was red all around her, like blood, all around her. She didn't know what was happening. She thought of Jesus on the cross and his blood shed for her and his presence in her life. She thought of his love for her and for her son. She thought of how God had known the pain of God's own son dying. She said she began to cry again, this time though they were tears that brought her peace. Suddenly the whole red world around her began to move, she began to hear the chirping of birds. She came to fullest consciousness and realized that she was lying in the grass with a flock of robins surrounding her. They had never had Robins in Pennsylvania that time of year.
Miracles of God's presence
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2005
posted by Bobbie Giltz McGarey at
9:22 PM
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