Markers

Markers….Defining moments….. Driving down the road yesterday passing by spots…that bring back memories…some good, many painful, I began to think about the markers in our lives…. Marker is defined as something used as a mark or indication. A memorial-something designed to preserve the memory of a person, event, etc., as a monument. - I began to think WHAT ARE THE MARKERS THAT MATTER? Is it the spot I passed with the many memories of my grandma and her awesome fried pies that she always had waiting for us after school, or the spot where she had her kettle of apple butter bubbling in the backyard and we had to take turns with the wooden paddle to stir it? Is the spot in the yard that she decided she couldn’t go on? Is the marker that matters the empty yard that once housed Ted’s sister’s family? Or is it that the yard is empty…no scars remaining of the devastating fire that snuffed out their lives. Is it the phone call in the wee hours of the morning alerting us to the fire & the panic that set in of the ramifications and what life would look like from that moment on? Is the marker that matters the barn with the wood that is weathering that took the brunt of the dump truck that ran over my brother or the spot in the driveway where he laid waiting for help to arrive. Is it when I see my other brother who sorrows that he couldn’t fix things for his little brother? Is it the spot in the road where my nephew’s blood ran across after he was thrown from the truck & his lifeblood poured out of him? WHAT MARKER REALLY MATTERS? Is it birthdays of those who have gone on? This week is the birthday of one of the most precious ladies that I was ever blessed to have in my life…my mother in law….oh how I miss her. Is that the defining memorial? Is it another holiday with fewer and fewer around the table. Is it when I look across the yard and think of my brother in law, my father in law…are those the defining moments? Is it standing in the cemetery and all that is left of loved ones is a memory & an etched stone? Is it when I see my newly widowed aunt not know what to do with herself? Or is it when I remember that those best hugs ever from my uncle have gone to the grave?… Even though all of those things are in my life as reminders…way too vivid at times….and it would seem they are there more often than not….they are not what defines me. I cannot help but think that each of these moments shape a portion of who I am and who I have become but even at that …they are not the markers that define me. JESUS CHRIST is the rock that defines me. His is the marker that holds the most important place in my heart…Jesus would be the one in the wee hours of the night when I had absolutely nothing to hold on to….who came in and loved me and cleansed me and saved me…in spite of myself…in spite of how good, bad or ugly my life was…..That is the moment, the rock I turn to when all of those other moments become too big at times… That moment of giving my all to Jesus is the moment that drives me every day. That moment reminds that Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world….That the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the same Spirit living inside of me…THAT MOMENT, THAT MOMENT OF ALL MOMENTS…. IS THE MARKER THAT MATTERS FOR ALL ETERNITY…...I pray that you my friends will have your own moment with Jesus when you let Him come in and cleanse you and rule in your life. Psa 62:6-7 He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. (7) In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.