This Spring my husband and I were driving along some back roads. Conversation was quiet as my eyes spotted something among the new green grass and seasonal buds coming on...
I noticed several properties or land that were once occupied, or houses that had long fallen in. You've seen them- abandoned structures and remnants of homes in the middle of the tall brush, weeds, briers, overgrown ivys...with fallen in roofs, cross timbers and collapsed barns. It always saddens me a little bit to see abandoned homes in this state.
But in the midst of all this decay, I also observed bursting, brilliant, green -stemmed bouquets of yellow and white daffodils and Easter lilies! Some were clumped on a steep bank; others around borders; even others- growing around an old well or in what was an original flower bed. All reaching toward the sun.
Something remained, in spite of the current ugly gray state. And it was color-rich and alive! In those OLD dead home steads!
No one had to point them out to me; I saw the evidence-jutting through the gray-scale!
Those flowers echoed, “Yes, someone lived here, but only for a little while—probably with lots of wiggling, giggling children ! I might have been a Mom-ma drawing from that well or that creek close by, where I once hung my families wash, on that tipping cross-beamed clothesline you see." "Or it may have been me, Papa, who proudly plowed up that rich soil for a vegetable garden to feed my big family. See the old smokehouse too-that's where we butchered? We built it early on in our marriage." Could be, this old, faded home place may have been grandpa and grandma's place, where they first took up housekeeping--Remember that kind neighbor who gave us a start of those daffodils to plant on our farm?"
Unknown to me, these left their mark behind- long after they were dead and gone.
It left me thinking... what will MY legacy be ?
Will what I have planted, make a difference in this world long after I leave here ? Will it outlive me ?
I guess they say, 'time will tell,' just as it has for those folks who came before me...
Christians, Let's Keep digging! Keep planting! Keep watering!... and Prayerfully Keep hopeful!
One way or the other, God will give the increase in His time! And like those flowers, the increase may even be well AFTER we're a memory!
