Joining with the community that is Five Minute Friday with
the lovely Lisa Jo
Baker. We like to write, not for comments or traffic or anyone else’s
agenda. But for pure love of the written word. For joy at the sound of
syllables, sentences and paragraphs all strung together by the voice of the
speaker.
Five minutes on HERE
In
memory of
Florence
Lucas
the
beloved child of Josiah and Esther Lucas
born
November 4th 1869
died
October 31st 1871
The
Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord
You
are a name in the list of thousands in our family tree. You died on All Hallows’
Eve just short of your second birthday. Those words from Job 1:21 inscribed on
your stone. Rock sheltered under the branches of the ancient tree.
Before
pressing the camera shutter, my prayer whispered to friends who had recently
lost their own children before-the-natural-order-of-things.
God–shaped
hole that was left in your parents heart. Your story is unknown save that your
father was the village rat catcher.
God,
He knows your story.
He
knows your parents’ story and their hearts too.
We
all stand here with God-shaped holes in our lives. We can choose to look at
them, see them and ask for your love to come and fill the aching spaces. Or we
can bury them deep and place a heavy headstone on top of them allowing the soil
to nurse the hurts and fertilise the wounds.
Yes
the loss of a child leaves a particularly painful and unique God-shaped hole.
Yet
still we all have holes.
When
we are before You, You can reveal them to us if we will see.
Jo this was so moving (and it takes a lot to stir my emotions!!). I have no words!
ReplyDeleteOh how achingly beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely tribute to a life cut far too short.
Thank you -- this was so powerful.
Oh, this is beautiful. Poignant and powerful. '... love messages in the spaces between the words of our story.' Just lovely.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Fabulous post.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ruth, Meredith, Helen & Denise for stopping by & commenting.
ReplyDeleteGraveyard photography is one weird hobby but I was happy beyond belief when I realised this one was part of our family tree! And I was living out Job 1:21 at the time (different circumstances). God just knows
Very beautiful thoughts. I feel that way sometimes in graveyards, too. (I'm into genealogy.) Even when a couple of hundred years have gone by, I still feel the parents' pain when I see the stone of a child. Then I remember, they've long since re-united.
ReplyDeleteLaura Hedgecock
http://www.TreasureChestofMemories.com
http://www.Twitter.com/LauraLHedgecock
Hey thanks Laura reading & taking the time to comment. You're right that we don't have to have a connection to feel the pain. This was such a lovely memorial to the child.
DeleteHave fun with genealogy (I'm into that too)
Jo
Beautiful and heartbreaking. Wow. There are no words.
ReplyDelete