A flag in the wind…
This has been quite an eventful week for me!
First, I want to say “Thank you” for each loving and thoughtful message I received for my 77th birthday on Monday, here at visitvangi. They meant even more to me because ministry took Best Beloved away last Saturday, and he only gets back in 3 weeks. I have become used to pretty much always having him around these days, so it’s major alone time and you made me feel like I had been out to coffee with precious friends.
We have never lived in one place and one home for so long –ever! So, I am taking this time to walk 23 years of accumulation out of the house, and today it was my books. I have always been an avid reader and owning a book always appealed to me far more than merely reading it. Books became friends and my stuffed shelves gave me great pleasure, but these days I am grateful for my Kindle and the ability to enlarge the print endlessly 😊.
And of course, a hurricane came and went this week too. Fortunately, our town escaped its relentless energy, but when I looked out of my bedroom window early Wednesday, I saw the flag on our boathouse flapping furiously. Immediately a sepia memory surfaced. I saw our family whispering and waiting next to a hospital bed. My mother-in-law’s battle with cancer was nearly over. Goodbyes had been said and she appeared to have slipped into a coma but, suddenly, she raised her frail hand, and waving it gently, she started to sing this little song she had led her Sunday School class in so many times…
”Love is the flag flying high from the castle of my heart, the castle of my heart, the castle of my heart. Love is the flag flying high from the castle of my heart, for the King is in residence here. Raise it high in the sky, let the whole world know, let the whole world know, let the whole world know. Raise it high in the sky, let the whole world know that the King is in residence here.”
So today I raise my flag in thankful praise for a resident King who is also a friend, one that sticks closer than a brother and never leaves usnor forsakes us, no matter what the wind!
