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Marietta
by Jennifer Champion Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8) Around three this morning, I awoke from a dream. It was a weird and wonderful dream in which my grandmother was one of the characters. She has been gone to heaven for many years now but I still love her and occasionally I have dreams with her in it and it is always a sweet reminder of her unconditional love for me. There is not a single time in my life when I can ever remember her being judgmental or critical of me. I may have pulled up to her house on the back of a motorcycle in a leather mini dress with my arms wrapped tight around a tattooed man with long hair but she never said a word. I may have given her a ride to the grocery store in one of my jalopy cars and blaring Motorhead but she all she did was hang on for the ride. She and I had a connection and it was wonderful. She wasn't your typical grandmother. She maintained her dark brown hair with the help of Clairol until the last year of her life. She loved wearing jeans and oftentimes they were too tight and brightly colored. She was a hairdresser but would drop her comb and grab me and get in the car and ride to the latest murder scene in town to get the scoop on what happened. She listened to a police scanner and would call me at 2am just to make sure it wasn't me in the car wreck she heard about. Her front door was always open and her kitchen was the hub for me and my friends. She was a rebel herself back in high school and was the only girl in the school beauty walk not to wear a light pink or blue dress; she wore bright red with a black leather belt. She didn't win but she didn't care. I could always relate to that attitude. She was a successful businesswoman and ran a little hair salon called Marietta's for over forty years. She loved my grandfather through alcoholism and stay with him for just over fifty years until his death. In that sense, she was a much better woman than me. She was such a wonderful example of unconditional love in my real world growing up. I know she didn't approve of my running around and partying ways and I know she worried a lot but in the end, she loved me no matter what. Isn't that the kind of love we should have for the people in our life? It is the kind of love Jesus has for us and we should reciprocate. We shouldn't love Him just when we feel like it or when we feel we have somehow been blessed by Him. Dear Father, thank you for my grandmother's unconditional love and the example she was in my life. I am so thankful she accepted your son Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior because I know I'll see her again one day in Heaven. Please show me how to love others in the way that she loved me. Please show me how to love others the way you love me. Amen. Jennifer Rubino Champion is actively involved in prison and jail ministry in Central and West Alabama. She and her husband Patrick have five children and a fur baby, Maggie. She is an author and artist and you can visit her website at www.jenniferchampion.com Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |