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| Resurrection Lilies planted by Grandma Gladys Smith.Photographed on her 123rd birthday. |
I remember how the sun shone through the windows of the original building where the Masham Baptist Church family worshipped as Kathy, Cindy, and Angie sang. They sang these words with such confidence, yet heartfelt sincerity.
Consider the lilies how stately they grow!
They toil not, they spin not, no seed do they sow;
Yet they bloom all the summer, so shining and tall,
The Father who loves them takes thought for them all.
The song was written in 1905
by Alice Williams Brotherton. These thought-provoking lyrics were based on the
words of Jesus as recorded in Luke 12:27-28:
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| Kathy Robbins |
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil
nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the
field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O
you of little faith?
As I glimpsed the resurrection
lilies that had just shot up this week, I thought of the truth of the song’s
words. How stately the resurrection lilies grew! Yet they did no work like planting
or tilling for the profuse beauty of the lilies to emerge. The creative power
of God caused the resurrection lilies to appear.
God’s power works in our world
in innumerable ways – healing bodies, comforting broken hearts, restoring
broken relationships, enabling humans to achieve beyond their capabilities. But the most astonishing miraculous power of all occurs when by His
resurrection power, Jesus makes a sinful human “dead in his sin” alive again, as Paul
characterized in his letter to the Ephesians chapter 2, verse 5:
…Even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, He gave us back our lives again when He raised Christ from the dead – only by His undeserved favor have we ever been saved… (The Living Bible)
Our pastor, Mike Brock, encourages connectivity. The Webb family, the Robbins family, and our family had a connectiveness. Bill Webb, Wayne Robbins, and my dad, Edmund Gates had little time for visiting during the week. Bill and Wayne managed full-time agriculture operations involving both farming and ranching. Dad worked daily using his carpentry skills and worked after hours with his cattle herd. Vonnie Robbins, Joy Webb, and Mother, Bernyce Gates were full-time homemakers. They prepared three meals daily, processed garden produce all summer long with freezing and canning, and even put up any edible fruit growing in the wild. These women sewed, patched, and performed 1,001 other tasks to remain on a tight budget.
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| Cindy Webb |
But Wednesday summer nights, these three couples connected. Bill, Wayne, and Dad could “chew the fat” long after the prayer meeting ended. I can still hear in my memory the laughter from Vonnie, Joy, and Mother as they told the antics of their kids during the summer. These couples also discussed important issues pertinent to having good, solid families.
Cindy and Billy Wayne Webb, Kathy and Dawn Robbins, and Angie and I ran up and down chasing each other on the slope at the Masham Baptist Church. We never tired and always found creative ways to play together during those summer evenings.
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| Angie Gates |
Connectivity in a church family can occur only between families that love the Lord, are devoted to Him, and share that desire to see His name honored. Even at age 98, Mother maintains that connectivity with these three couples. As a widow herself, she grieves for Joy and Vonnie walking through life without the husbands God graciously gave them. Mother mentions Joy being bereaved of both of her children, Cindy and Billy Wayne but we remind each other of the strong faith Joy has in the Lord and His promise. She frets over Vonnie burying her daughter, Dawn, in the Masham Cemetery and returning to her home in South Dakota, but we often end these conversations with this promise from Jesus from John 11:25-26:
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