Pastor’s Email Devotion — Guest Devotioneer, Ginny Gerhart
The Week of Easter 6
May 10, 2015
Ever since I’ve been involved with the Gerhart Family, the entire extended family gets together for Thanksgiving. First in an Aunt & Uncle’s basement and as we ‘out grew’ their home, we go to a local restaurant. ‘Small’ years there are be about 25 of us and ‘big’ years we are close to or over 50! This is Dutch’s sisters & brothers, spouses and nieces and nephews (and now great and great-great’s). This past Thanksgiving was the first one we would be attending without Dutch. He was just too feeble to leave the nursing home. We had spent most of October until the week of Thanksgiving, cleaning out Grandpa’s apartment so it could be turned back over to Luther Acres. Our dining room was full of his stuff, that none of us was sure what to do with (but knew we needed to keep) and the last thing I felt like doing was making a big meal. Beginning on Tuesday, I kept having a little voice talking to me, telling me I needed to make a turkey and Grandma’s stuffing for Grandpa. At first I ignored it. But it was just there. Finally, I asked David & Holly if they could make anything work at Thanksgiving, while Becky was also home. I told the kids and Karl ‘why’ I just ‘had’ to do it. We all agreed Mom would make a turkey dinner on Friday evening. Karl and the kids took a big plate of turkey and Grandma’s stuffing up to him. His eyes lit up. He didn’t have it Fri eve or Sat (when he again fell and broke another bone in his hip), but had it for dinner on Sunday! Message I got was that I definitely could now make Grandma’s stuffing! Figuring the voice was done, I went about switching gears from cleaning out and Thanksgiving to Christmas. Monday evening, I now had an even louder voice saying ‘get your Christmas letter done NOW and get your cards in the mail. I came home from bowling and started our letter. Worked on it Tuesday and Wednesday, between addressing (we send out about 150) our cards. Plan was for after bowling on Thursday, Karl and I would ‘print’ the letter and cards would be mailed on Friday and Saturday. Usually, I send what I think is our ‘final’ draft to the kids for them to edit any of their info. Didn’t do that this year, as I didn’t feel like I had time….. Well…while I was at bowling Thursday afternoon, Karl got the phone call from Luther Acres that Dutch had passed, sometime after they brought his lunch tray in. My point in sharing this with you, is you have to trust the ‘little voices’ in your head and your gut feelings. I firmly believe that God was telling me that Grandpa wanted Grandma’s stuffing one last time AND that to get the cards done…..
Father, I pray that I might be open to hear your voice. May I be eager to hear what you have to say to me through your written Word, and by the Word you have inscribed upon my heart. Give me ears to hear and eyes to see your Spirit alive in the world, and let me be willing to obey that Spirit of life and faith. Amen.
