I met Sara the first time at a Chapel service. She saw my Texas flag purse and we were connected for life – it’s a Texas thing.
Over the next year that she and I were in the same place, I started watching her love people. She is so good at it.
She is from Texas, a small town called Stephenville. She grew up in that same town her whole life. With the exception of a semester at Texas A&M, she never lived anywhere else till she married her Soldier-husband. Since they said “I do,” they have had adventures that have taken them from Germany to Kansas, even all the way to Hawaii.
Has she adapted and changed? No doubt. Has God used these adventures to challenge and grow her? She would certainly confess to growing more than she ever might have if God had left her in Texas.
This is one aspect that Sara and I have in common – both of us would have been very comfortable to marry and find a happy little home in Texas in which to live for the next 60 years. God had other plans. He knew exactly what He was doing.
It is this adventure that has allowed us to step out of our comfort zone, and in turn we have, as I like to say, ”a front row seat to God at work.”
Sara has a gift that I have longed for, though. She has an ability to love people. This gift has caused her some challenges to say the least. As she moves from one location to the other, she struggles with the love of those she has left behind. It takes her some time to step out again in the new place because she knows that with meeting new people she will love again.
Amazingly, this attribute that challenges her is also the gift God has given her to bless others. I have watched her and been amazed as she hugs, listens, and cares.
I noticed this again not too long ago. It had been months since I had seen her. I had mentioned something to her the last time I saw her. As soon as she saw me, she asked about that very thing. She remembered. As I shared what had happened in the meantime, she had compassion and love – and there in the middle of the hallway she hugged me because she knew I needed it.
I am not unique in her response to things. She has this ability with everyone she meets. She loves, in the verb sense of the word. Her heart just naturally overflows and pours into the lives of others.
She displays this awesome love when she speaks of her husband, and even more so when she speaks of her Savior. Over the years, she will confess, as we all will, that it is Christ who has sustained us, walked with us, and loved us in many challenging times. Her marriage and her family are a wonderful testimony to the faithfulness of our Lord, and Sara certainly gives credit where credit is due.
She loves Jesus. She loves people. This is the legacy she will leave – the legacy she has left on my life.
Do you have those who have crossed your path and demonstrated this love for you? Those to whom love seems to come more naturally? Love – I am still learning to love in the verb sense of the word, but thankful for those who have demonstrated such things to me.
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