Your Heart Must Not Be Troubled

In the midst of my best friend's deepest grief, I was out of the country. My phone didn't work, I didn't have a laptop with me. I wanted to be unplugged.

I cheated. 

Maybe it was intuition, maybe the Holy Spirit IS intuition. I logged on to Facebook to find a message telling me my best friend's sister had died.

And I was out of the country. Then I had my very first art show and was flying directly to it, do not pass Go. Not going home first.

When I finally got home, the death had occurred four days previous. With wine and the cool of the evening air, my friend and I sat outside and she poured her heart out.

Both sisters had been coming to my Visual Prayer workshops for months. Both had been painting and creating because I'd invited them to join me. 

Then one of them was gone and there was such a hole in our lives.

She loved dragonflies. She loved Visual Prayer. My friend showed me the prayer her sister had started with get well cards and notes of encouragement from loved ones, but it wasn't finished.  After consoling my friend, I drove home at four in the morning and on the way decided I needed to do a Visual Prayer instead of sending flowers. I knew it was right.

I opened a Bible that was given to my ex-husband and I as a wedding gift, not appropriate to display in my home with Phil, my husband of seventeen years now, but how does one get rid of a Bible? Instead, it's now used for God's glory.  Open before me was the book of John and this passage:

Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way where I am going."

"Lord," Thomas said, "we don't know where You're going. How can we know the way?"

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

"If you know Me, you will also know My Father. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him."

"Lord," said Philip, "show us the Father, and that's enough for us."

That is the verse I highlighted in the painting. Instead of sleeping, I painted. When it was complete, it was time to shower and dress and leave for the visitation and funeral. It was placed among beautiful floral arrangements near her coffin and people talked about it.

When the pastor stepped in front of the podium to deliver the ulogy, he spoke wonderful words, he read two poems written by a cousin, he made us laugh and cry. 

And then he spoke God's Word, "Your heart must not be troubled."

Yes, indeed: Ecclesiastes 3:14: I know that all God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of Him.

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Michelle Pendergrass is in a constant state of awe watching God move Visual Prayer into the hearts and lives of people around her.  She's trying especially hard to make her fear go away over the Creative Soul: Worship Outside the Lines retreat.

Comments

[Glynn]

Perhaps if we understood the joy she now has, our hearts wouldn't be so troubled.

One of the best funeral services I've ever experienced was the one for my father-in-law, who was a total baseball fanatic. The closing hymn we sang was "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," and it was perfect.

[Michelle Pendergrass]

So true Glynn. And I love those funerals like your father-in-law's. :) My dad played Hooked on a Feeling at my mom's and it is a good memory.