Living On The Edge

Amazing Grace

dancingdreamer | May 11, 2008 12:23

Tears were rolling down my cheeks as I was driving away from my mother’s house last summer. My heart was deeply touched when the realization hit me: My mother lives in the ghetto. But the difference between my mother, and others that live in the ghetto, is that she lives there by choice. She had previously lived in a very classy home in a prestigious community. Then one day she and her husband heard the voice of the Lord nudging them to move to a small town in West Georgia to plant a mission church. They sold their home, left upper middle class suburbia, and moved to a tiny house in a mill village that was built around the turn of the 19^th century.

I clearly remember the first time I saw the neighborhood. I had never seen anything quite like it, and neither had some of my other family members. My brother’s humor lightened our shocked state the first time we visited the new place that my mom called "home." He said, “This reminds me of Archie Bunker’s neighborhood.” We had a good laugh, but the truth of the matter is Archie Bunker’s neighborhood (in the 1970’s sitcom) was much nicer. My daughter inquired, “Why are there dishwashers and furniture in some of the yards of this neighborhood?” As inquisitive as we were, I knew in my heart, this was where God had called my mother to live. Seeing the elegantly dressed, middle class woman in an impoverished area may have seemed odd to some people. But for me, as her daughter, I could see that the place she had chosen to live - fit perfectly with her Christ-like heart. She had found her mission field right here in America, in a community filled with people in great need of God’s grace and love. This is what defines my mother - her gift for sharing Christ’s mercy with the poor in spirit and brokenhearted.

I could fill a book with many examples of how I have seen Christ’s light shine through my mother, but there is one that has impacted my life the most. Shortly after my 13^th birthday, my father told me that he did not love my mother anymore and he was leaving. I have the memory etched in my mind of my mother sitting at the table weeping as she read her Bible. She had just heard my father’s words of rejection. Her college sweetheart, whom she was married to for 17 years, was divorcing her, piercing her heart. Shortly after the divorce, my father remarried another woman. My heart was crushed, so I can only imagine the depth of pain my mother was experiencing. Yet in the midst of her grieving, she continued to exemplify the amazing grace of God.

My mother never spoke any unkind words about my father, and she lived out what it means to forgive the way our heavenly Father forgives. Her loving words revealed her love for Christ. She told me that we needed to pray for my father – pray that he would surrender his life to Christ. She continually showed love and kindness to my father and his new wife. My mother’s life was building tremendous faith in my teenage heart as I watched her faithfulness. I saw a miracle come forth. A little over four years later, my father radically surrendered his heart to Christ. At seventeen years old, it was a blessing to have spiritual eyes to see that the merciful love of my mother had drawn my father to the Lord.

Later, while my mother was recovering from cancer, my father shared with me the true impact my mother’s love and forgiveness had made on his life. What I had discerned in my spirit, my father’s words confirmed. He began telling me that the most significant factor leading him to a fulfilled life in Christ was experiencing the unconditional, Christ-like love of my mother. It was beautiful, hearing with my ears what I had known in my heart for many years.

The Lord honored my mother by bringing her a strong, Christian man to marry several years after my father remarried. My mother’s life is a beautiful picture of how the Lord is able to take a devastating situation and use it for good (Romans 8:28). But most of all, her life is a true example of Christ’s mercy and kindness. The Lord had a good plan when He placed her in a neighborhood where there is poverty, drug addiction, and homeless people. These people are the ones that need to see grace the most. I wrote a poem about my mother titled: “Her Name Should Be Grace.” When I presented it to her on Mother’s Day…she softly said, "That’s what my name means – GRACE. "

I love you, Mama! Thank you for being the living example of Christ's love. You will have an abundance of crowns in heaven.

Eternally grateful,

Amy