Love's Legacy
Welcome Back! It has been a while since I wrote but I wanted to jump back in to share some thoughts.
I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment (as this was to originally be a Women's History Month post) to reflect on the women that inspire me and a bit about their legacy. If you have been following this blog for a while, you know that the mission of this blog is to share little known stories. Not just the well known stories that everyone knows but the little known figures that through their small actions have changed our world for the better.
You may have also picked up from reading this blog that I have a passion for doing all I can to bring awareness to MMIWs and Child Brides. Part of that is because of the legacy that women leave behind them.
Recently, my sister-in-law had the opportunity to play a concert with the Annie Moses Band. In listening to their music, there have been several songs that have stuck with me, but one of my favorites is the band's song Love's Legacy. The song tells the story of the band's great-grandmother Annie Moses (also whom the group is named after) and the ways in which she started music in their family.
There are women in my past both historical and genealogical that leave me a legacy that I can only hope to be half of. Much of that legacy includes service and caring for others. This caring for others makes me wish that I could help others see that people are people no matter their background, race, or gender. There is a situation that has come up at my alma mater that makes my heart hurt. It hurts when a place has a history of being missionaries for Christ, yet closes its doors to those who need HIM most. But this situation made me think, what does love's legacy really mean?
The legacy of love that we should follow is that of Christ. As Easter is approaching, I wanted to take time to reflect on the greatest love and legacy that we are given as gift to carry on. This gift is mentioned in John 3:14-17 (ESV):
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (1)
That last verse, which says that GOD did not send His Son to "condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him", is so often over looked as we most of the time just stop and the end of verse 16. Yet I think verse 17 is the bigger blessing. This thought that GOD loves us so much that he sent his son not to judge or bring fire down from heaven upon us but to save us. If only we could live up to that legacy of grace and love...
In John 15:9-13 (Wycliff), Jesus says:
"As my Father loved me, I have loved you; dwell ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall dwell in my love; as I have kept the commandments of my Father, and dwell in his love. These things I spake to you, that my joy be in you, and your joy be full-filled [and your joy be filled]. This is my commandment, that ye love together, as I have loved you. No man hath more love than this, that a man put his life for his friends." (2)
This is the gift that Christ gives us. As any good gift it is freely given and nothing is required. If this is true than why is it so hard for us to extend that gift to others? I pray that as this Easter season is upon us that you would join me in taking time to reflect on how we can show Christ's love to others and how we can carry on His legacy.
Footnotes:
(1) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3&version=ESV
(2) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2015:9-12&version=WYC
Relevant Blog Posts and Other Stuff:
Pondering The Past - The Quiet Trailblazer
Telling Their Stories (this blog) - Can You Relate?, No More Stolen Sisters, I'll Remember You, and Pocahontas, Sacagawea and the MMIW
Book - The Redhead of Auschwitz (I haven't read this book yet but I follow the Author and her granddaughter on Instagram. One of the major lessons the Author shares is that "every person is a person".)
History Underground - Dispatches from Ukraine