Good morning…
“Our sweet Bettina went home tonite,” Kitty Crenshaw texted Cathy Snapp and me at 10:22 pm on August 17th. (These two gifted friends are the co-authors of The Hidden Life Awakened, a holy book chronicling the life of Betty Skinner.) “Betsy asked me to go and anoint her body. It has been such an honor.”
“It is the most precious honor, most utterly precious honor,” replied Cathy right away, “and so, so, so befitting for you and the two of you. I love you all very much.”
“Such a beautiful honor,” I joined in. “Tender and loving. God’s love is so palpable. The joy of the Lord is our strength. So grateful Betty is with Jesus, united, at peace.”
After very little sleep I woke to this text from Cathy at 7:23 am. “Dearest friends…I awoke this morning with a call to be near Betty’s heart…I went to our old Hidden Life folders and found this one page note dictated by Bettina. It feels so dear and simple and profound this morning. What follows are Betty’s thoughts about the book and the Source and intent for her meditations.”
“The book is a testimony for the impact of God’s Love on a life.
It is a story of a person who has taken the risk of total surrender, whose life speaks because of entrusting herself wholly and completely to God.
Betty’s story bears witness to the truth that God is a Self-bestowing God Who persistently presses in to meet, to change, to fill us in our deepest need with His healing Love.
In my meditations, I am entrusting others with my heartbeat and inviting them to let it beat with their own hearts. In so belonging to one another, we are drawn into unity with the Divine.
My meditations are the fruit of the Love in mystical understanding, born not out of information or intellect, but rather out of sacred encounters with the Beloved. They are what I receive from Christ: to know, to feel and to desire.”
“Oh Cathy, this is so wise and succinct, encapsulating everything,” I texted back. “The way God’s mystical Love spreads out through a completely surrendered person like Betty is a marvel to behold.”
“Kitty and I were talking by phone about that very thing yesterday morning while I walked at a friend’s farm,” I explained further. “Hearing the news of Betty’s virus in our post, so many were talking at breakfast about how Betty Skinner has so beautifully influenced their lives. Lifting a prayer. Connecting with God and Betty all over the globe.”
“On the morning after a huge storm, I looked up and saw this eagle spreading her wings high up in a tree, as if this wise creature was overhearing our conversation and responding in agreement, yes, yes, yes!” I envisioned. “Surrender everything to God. Be one with all.”
“We are at one with God, Betty, and all of creation,” I gushed. “Don’t you feel this truth pulsing through every ounce of everything?”
“I do!” texted Kitty.
“I KNOW!!!!!!!” responded Cathy. “I feel Betty soaring into the heavenly realms…..”
But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] will gain new strength and renew their power; They will lift up their wings [and rise up close to God] like eagles [rising toward the sun]; They will run and not become weary, They will walk and not grow tired (Isaiah 40:31, AMP).
…Sue…
