New Concepts

Yesterday was beautiful out here in the northeast central region of North Carolina in the USA.  I took advantage of the pleasant high sixties degree late afternoon weather and sat in a chair on the patio watching and listening to the birds in the trees, while Fiver frolicked around the yard.  After a while I became lost in thought and sadly reckoned that it is just not fun anymore to sit here in our lovely backyard without Piper at my side!  Even when she was not able to communicate, her presence was all that was needed to spark the joy that always seemed to flow whenever we were together.  Besides, even though she couldn’t speak or express much emotion, we could still understand each other spirit to spirit.

In Mark 10:7-8 Jesus tells us, “That's why a man will leave his father and mother and will remain united with his wife, and the two will be one. So they are no longer two but one.” (God’s Word ©)  In many respects, I think that Piper and I were a living, breathing illustration of that scripture.  We were very close throughout the years and in many ways and situations acted as one individual.  So to say that we could communicate spirit to spirit, to me, is not a stretch at all!

I was thinking as I stepped out of the shower yesterday morning, that Piper and I seemed to be “wired” differently from the rest of both our families.  You think God plans stuff like that?  I have to admit that I do.  I believe that He has perfect plans for each of us, but yet the responsibility lies on US to seek Him and then obey His leadings in order to enter into His best for us… throughout our lives.  It doesn’t just come automatically… and like one of my professors in Bible School said in many of her classes, we are Christians but we live in an imperfect world where the prince of this world, the devil, lives to try and mess up God’s plans for us!  (See: John 12:31, Ephesians 2:2)

It seems like I must have been doing a lot of thinking yesterday!  While preparing dinner and half listening to “The Five” on the Fox News channel, something was said that got me to contemplate the thought, that I now have NO CONCEPT of so many things in my life without Piper.  Like standing in the kitchen and preparing meals together, holding hands as we travelled just about anywhere in the car, simply embracing her tightly against me and mostly above almost everything else, just experiencing her smile and sparkling and encouraging personality.  I have absolutely NO CONCEPT in my life now, of anyone besides her looking deeply into my eyes and calling me “Jimmy.”

When all the preparations were complete and the food was cooking in the oven, I plopped down on the couch next to my big white fluffy dog who was comfortably resting on his blanket and began to write an entry into my journey entitled “Piper’s Story” book 2, that I began a few days after her passing.  I took a longing look at the picture that I had inserted into the journal a few days a ago and wrote as if speaking to Piper, “Do you realize how many roles you played and or filled in my life?”

I am discovering in my grief process, that one of the negative (if you could call it that???) results of having an extremely close and intimate relationship with a departed loved one, is the tremendously emotional and many times physical pain you experience when your other half moves onto to their joyful place in heaven.  So now, as I am processing through those very real symptoms of a broken heart, I am also learning how to begin to see things differently than I did before.  Each day becomes a brand-new learning experience as vacant roles in me present themselves and beg to be filled and or replaced by someone or something else than Piper.

Ephesians 5:25 literally jumped off the page of my Bible yesterday and again this morning as I read, “Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church - a love marked by giving not getting." (MSG)  Each time I absorb that scripture into my soul I have to almost automatically reply, “Well, I did that!”  Of course I did, for I loved her more than anything else in this world.  When it became evident that Piper could not safely stay home alone anymore and needed someone with her 24/7 back in 2010, there was never any question from each of us as well as from our heavenly Father as He interacted with us, that it would be me.

In talking about the Old Testament wives who cultivated their inner beauty, I Peter 3:5 states: “The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and were good, loyal wives to their husbands.” (MSG)  The King James Version explains that they could be loyal to their husbands because they trusted in God for them.  And that is why I stepped up without hesitation to take the ultimate care and responsibility for my wife in her deepest time of need.  We were as one and I was not about to betray her trust in me when she required the most of me. 

So husbands and wives, I implore you to step up and fulfill your roles in becoming one together in Christ.  Wives trust in the Lord for your husband and pray for him and his abilities and Godly desires to care for you with all his heart.  And men, step up where needed and “go all out in love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting.”  You just can’t go wrong when you do it – TOGETHER – God’s way!

Have a wonderful rest of the week, and as you do, say along with me, “I am expecting to trust in the Lord to help me fulfill my daily responsibilities.”