Good morning…
In God’s great timing, I snapped this photo the day before I received an important email. I took a picture of this large, makeshift ark for a friend in Florida who was deeply touched by our grief podcast in December. Especially she loved our encouragement that God quietly builds for us a protective ark to live in before the flood waters of grief begin to ravage our lives.
“Good morning Sue,” her email came from Jacksonville the very next day. “We have a local charity in town called Angels for Allison, a non-profit begun by a family grieving the loss of their 15-year-old daughter in a tragic car accident. They were determined to find hope in the darkness. Their charity pays funeral expenses for families who cannot afford it in honor of Allison.”
“Recently I attended at fundraiser and with my donation I wrote the following quote remembering the stunning words from your podcast on grief,” she explained. She shared with me the quote she had passed along with her generous gift: “I heard recently that ‘God builds an ark for those navigating the stormy waters of suffering’ and Angels for Allison is most definitely that provision.”
“Three separate staff members were as blown away as I was by those words and they contacted me and want to use that quote in their publication,” she continued. “Rather than just paraphrase, I would love to give credit to the hospice nurse who said that in your podcast and let her know how much of an impact those words continue to make. Can you provide me with her name so we can give her credit? I love how God connects and inspires and the ripples keep flowing!”
A few minutes later she sent me this screenshot, having been drawn to Ginna MacFarling’s name on her own.
I then did two things.
- I sent my Florida friend the photo of the ark I had taken for her from the State Botanical Gardens of Georgia: “I know you love the concept of God’s ark so I took this picture for you yesterday. It is part of a cool playground, large enough to climb inside. It feels like a protective cocoon, being tangibly held by God’s makeshift shelter in the midst of grief’s storms.”
- I immediately forwarded the email to Ginna: “I just received this email from a friend in Florida. A quote that came out of our grief podcast is sending out ripples. I just wanted you to enjoy God’s expansive impact also.”
“Thanks for sharing,” she replied right away. “It’s nice to know others can be touched by our thoughts. I’m not even sure how to pull up the podcast any more. I don’t know what I did with the link. Do you have it? I can’t remember the exact words I used but the gist is that when we look back after a suffering event we can see where God had already built the ark and during the grief and suffering period we are assured a place of safety while God calms the storm.”
I rummaged around and found the link to our podcast and, on behalf of Ginna and me, I share it with our written word community once again: Unwrapping the Gift of Grief: Grief, Pandemics, and Garbanzo Beans. Only God knows who might need to hear this life-giving wisdom again on this sunny Sabbath morning, following a night of hard, driving rains.
On the same day, Noah, his wife, his sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth), and his sons’ wives went into the ark, and all were secured within it… All those in the ark, males and females of all living flesh, went in just as God had told them to do. And the Eternal One shut them all in for the duration of the flood (Genesis 7:13-16, VOICE).
We cannot stop flood waters from tumultuously rising, but we can nestle inside the ark God miraculously has built for us on sunny days. Resting secured with our loved ones inside God’s makeshift cocoon, we are shut in with the Eternal One for the duration of our grief process.
…Sue…
