Good morning…
I nestle into my quiet time spot, a mug of coffee beside me, to unpack my bag from last night’s “Day of the Dead” party. Annually, a group of about twenty of us gather on November 1st at a mutual friend’s home. In her living room we set up small altars with candles, photos, and symbols of loved ones who have stepped over from earth to heaven. Last year we could not meet because of Covid, but last night we gathered again to share favorite foods and cherished stories of our deeply missed people.
In past years I have honored Beth Jordan, a dear middle aged friend from church who soulfully battled brain cancer, and Cole Haygood and Paul Hackett, two young adult friends of our twenty-six year old son, who died suddenly, way too early. This year I decided to honor my beloved spiritual mentor Betty Skinner who went to heaven on August 17th at age ninety-five.
I unpack my bag of Betty Skinner symbols:
- My short-haired “Betty” angel, a sweet purchase from Goodwill the day after Jesus took Betty to heaven.
- My well-worn copy of The Hidden Life Awakened, a book chronicling Betty’s ascending journey with God, personally signed with a loving note from Betty.
- Pistachios and chocolate bars, just like those we enjoyed on the mountaintop as a small group who hiked up in September to scatter Betty’s ashes from Julian’s Rock in Cashiers, North Carolina.
- Another muted angel figure I found at a recent yard sale, an empowering symbol of Betty’s living presence morphing into me, as I grow into the colorful woman God has uniquely designed me to be.
As I told the story of Betty Skinner’s profound impact on my ordinary life, again words fell short. Feeble. Incomplete. Woefully inadequate. How could I describe in five minutes, to a group of attentive strangers, the way Betty met me in the valley of my own depression in 2007 and gradually walked me up the mountain toward a place of intimate wholeness with our loving, eternal God?
Betty has given me a vibrant vision of what it looks like to age with gratitude, accepting what “is” day after day, shining more brightly with the light of Christ with each passing year. Betty has also given me lifelong spiritual friends in the book’s authors, Kitty Crenshaw and Dr. Cathy Snapp, along with the joy of befriending Dana Cunningham, the passionate pianist who has added a magical melody to Betty’s short meditations.
God’s perfect timing allowed me to honor the ongoing presence of Betty Skinner in my life on the Monday night before this Thursday afternoon when Kitty, Cathy, and Dana will arrive at our Atlanta home. Together we will cocoon with God before we will spread our multi-colored wings this Saturday at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, bringing to life the live stream webinar of our Awake To Wholeness Retreat.
In spirit, I invite you to join us in prayer as the ongoing power of Betty Skinner rises up in each one of us. But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling…chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted (1 Peter 2:9-10, MSG).
…Sue…
