SUNDAY SCRIPTURE~ October 14, 2012

I remember that day so well... we had just moved into StoneGable... mover's boxes were piled high in every room waiting to be opened... and I could still smelled  fresh paint and just laid carpet. Everything was new and beautiful and clean! 

My husband called StoneGable "my dream house". I had loved this home from the minute I saw it in a magazine years earlier. Spacious, but not ostentatious...modern farmhouse styling... comfortable!  The plans had been tucked away for quite awhile... but they were always fresh in my mind... I just knew someday I would live at StoneGable!

That day I sent the children off to their new school... smiling and waving to them from the front porch as they boarded their school bus.

My job for that day was to make a dent in a of the pile of boxes... to bring our life and personality to StoneGable... instead I went back to bed... depressed... crying ... and very guilty for feeling so bad when I was living one of my biggest dreams!

That is where I spent the morning. My makeup was smeared from crying... my mascara running big highways of black tar down my cheeks stopping at my chin. My pillow was a mess... I was a mess!  I just could not stop crying... big ugly crying!

I had never experienced the pit of depression... and the guilt that hugged me so tight that it suffocated me!

No warning... no slow onset... it just hit me like a ton... or twenty... of bricks!

Just before noon there was a knock at my door. I would have never answered it in my condition... but it was persistent... very very persistent! The person on the other end of the door would not go away! The knocking went on and on!

I didn't even have the energy to tidy myself up. I dragged myself and my the big  blackness... that clung to  me like a thick cloud of smoke... out of bed and down the stairs to answer the door.

I opened the door just the slightest sliver... just enough to see who in the h - - - was at the other end of the door trying to literally knock it down!!!! (When you are that depressed your language goes in the pit too!)

There stood Mrs." Godworthy" ! Smiling, happy and with a light and lilting voice chirpped, "Yvonne, I'm sorry to bother you, I know you must be busy today".

Now, Mrs. "Godworthy" came by her name honestly several years before. Her real name is Mrs. GODFREY, but my children thought her name was GODWORTHY... "
because she is the godliest woman at church". My children really thought her name was Mrs. GODWORTHY! And from that day on she became... Mrs. GODWORTHY  to us.

So... there Mrs "Godworthy" stood on my beautiful new wraparound porch... I opened the door a little more.

By now she could see my unravelled  appearance and it did not make her flinch. I did not see a passing look of horror cross her face or a raised eyebrow of "what in the world!".

I begrudgingly asked Mrs. "Godworthy" into my box filled foyer... and like a ray of  bright golden sunshine she came through my red front door!

I did not... could not... ask her to come any further... to have a seat...or to have a cup of coffee. All things that would be automatic in my home! After all, I was raised to be polite and hospitable... and I dearly loved Mrs. "Godworthy"!

My lack of manner didn't seem to make any difference... she just stood there... smiling her sunshine all over my foyer! It bounced off of every surface... illuminating everything!

"Yvonne", she began..." this may seem a little crazy"...  Nothing could be crazier than how I looked, I thought...

"God, sent me to give you a hug today"!  Yes, this IS crazy... you win... my inward dialogue went on!

"I was on my way to visit my daughter and passed by your home earlier this morning and got an overwhelming feeling that I was to deliver a hug to you today... isn't that crazy?"

 She went on...."I felt a little embarrassed to just come up to your door and tell you I needed to give you a hug... sooooo, I told God that if  HE really did want me to give you a hug, that I would do it on my way home!" 

"I forgot all about the hug at my daughter's and as I was passing your house on my way home...  this time I felt God telling me to get out of the car and give you a hug! Remembering my promise... I pulled into your driveway... and knocked at your door..." 

She left out the...." for a long... long.... long" time part!

Mrs." Godworthy" is a tiny woman... and I am quite tall. But that morning, in my foyer, when she wrapped God's love around me with her arms... I felt so small!

As she wispered, "Yvonne, God sent me to tell you that He loves you"... all the sunshine in the foyer reflecting everywhere... got sucked right into my soul... and banished the ugly darkness... 

Mrs. "Godworthy" left as quickly and as happily as she came... but the SONshine did not go with her... It stayed inside me to warm me and comfort me... and to banish the demon I had been fighting with earlier that morning!

When God whispers in our ear... listen... and obey.  You were made to be an earthen vessel... that holds the GLORY OF GOD... glory that needs to be shared and given to the whole hurting world!

What a privilege... what a blessing! Share the SON!