Love Blooms

Lilacs and peonies always remind me of my grandmother.

I came home from her funeral this past weekend to find that my peonies had bloomed.

They smell wonderful!

What a lovely reminder

that she lives on

in heaven.

My grandmother lost her younger sweet sister, Vivian (Bibby if you are family) back in the winter.

Aunt Bibby and MaMa.

Aunt Bibby got scarlett fever when she was quite young. She became very ill and her mother (my great grandmother, Mabel), asked her 6 children at the time (there would eventually be 9) to go out into the yard and find a quiet spot to pray. 

Pray hard.

For Bibby to be healed.

That is Bibby on the left on her mother Mabel's lap. My grandmother, Mary is behind them next to Betty and Bob (who married Monte and I and my parents). In front of him is Barney on his father, Gerald's lap. Twins Gene and Jeannie are in the front and center. Janet and Beverly would come later.

God saw fit to heal Bibby and the family committed themselves wholly to walking with Christ and never looked back.

But the illness weakened Bibby's heart.

She had surgery to repair some of that damage this past winter but never recovered.

At her funeral, my dear sweet grandmother told Bibby's daughter, Gwen, something she had never told anyone before.

"You know where I went in the yard when Mother told us to go pray for Bibby to be healed? 

The outhouse! 

I couldn't think of any better place to go pray."

Cousin Gwen told me that at my grandmother's funeral

to make me smile.

It worked.

Gwen decided to plant 8 rose bushes on the grounds of her church in honor of her mother (Bibby) and my grandmother (MaMa).

Pink rose bushes for Bibby.

Red rose bushes for MaMa.

She went to water the plants Sunday

and found one single pink bloom from Bibby's bush

and one single red bloom from MaMa's bush.

Two sisters are together again

blooming in heaven.

God is so wonderful to not only offer us eternal life in heaven so we can be reunited with our loved ones

but COMFORT those of us still here on earth

until we can see them again.

That faithful comfort has come by his creation

peonies and roses

and also floods of memories 

that I haven't thought of in years.

Isn't God wonderful?