Gigi's Blog

Prepared and Ready

visioncgbc | September 23, 2008 10:01

Our Sunday School lesson this past week was on the parable of the 10 virgins.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025:1-13;&version=31

Two of the points brought out were that you must be prepared and you must be ready. When I read that initially I thought “wait, those are the same”, but then as I read I really understood what this passage meant. As I told my class, when we took Meagan to college I was prepared. She was packed, classes were ready, medical exams done, parking pass bought. I thought I was ready too. But when the time came to leave, I realized I was completely prepared but in no way ready.
Janice went to be with Christ yesterday not too long after I blogged. Most things were prepared for. Funeral arrangements made. Nurses telling the family daily death was very close. But as prepared as things were, no one was ready. I’ve heard people say that this is painful but must surely bring relief. I think at some point it will, but not yet. I think those who knew Janice aren’t saddened for Janice, they’re saddened for themselves, or at least I am. I know Janice is with Christ and that is complete and total gain, but I am here without her, her friends are here without her, her children are here without her, her grandkids are here without her.
Janice was just Janice. No falsehoods about her, she didn’t know how to do that. She was never exposed to parents who told her to act happy, because she didn’t have parents. She was orphaned. She wasn’t adored by a husband. Quite the opposite. She felt earthly rejection and had a lifetime of struggle. She didn’t have all of her fingers. She worked in a textile mill and had lost some of them through an accident. She got sick probably 10 or so years ago and then very sick a few years back. She struggled at times to pay for medication that was $300+ per month and sometimes would do without her medicine. (Unless someone found out and then made sure she had it) Janice had no earthly means to pretend to be something she wasn’t. She had natural beauty. She found tremendous joy in the things that you and I take for granted. She loved flowers, and enjoyed animals and nature. She was a realist because of her hardship, but a dreamer because of her children and grandchildren. She saw right through a fake individual because she was so opposite of that in every way. She had a childlike excitement to do anything, or go anywhere. I mean anything from going on a trip, to going to a restaurant. She loved her family. Oh how much she loved them. Richard has truly suffered enormous loss. Janice was probably Richard’s biggest cheerleader and support. She wanted to hear everything he had to say. She listened because she wanted to, not out of obligation, and she was this was with everyone. She loved Holly so much. For the first several years of marriage they lived with Janice. In the midst of this Rebekah was born. I have no idea how Janice mentored Holly into the wife she is when she had been through such struggle, but she did. As I said Rebekah lived with Janice for several years, and it was wonderful. You don’t hear many success stories in these living situations-but this was. Rachel was born and they moved, but those two were with her constantly. Janice played Barbie’s and read stories and told stories and did the things that most of us grown-ups only do with kids so they’ll leave us alone. She lived to play with her grandkids. They were her life, not something on a to-do list. Rebekah was with Janice when she left earth and God knew this was exactly right. Rebekah and Goudy had a very special bond because of her being there from infancy. Richard hadn’t made it back to the house yet, and Rebekah was there and Janice knew it. I think Janice found it too difficult to leave with Richard there, but Rebekah was part of Richard. And apparently at the sound of her sweet little voice, Janice died.
So as I said we were not ready, but it has happened. Do you have un-readiness about something?? Salvation? Unforgiveness?? ………………………..You fill in the blank. If you read the story about the ten virgins, when the call came, there was no time to change anything. There are many things in my life that I’m not ready for, but that doesn’t mean they won’t happen.

Proverbs 21:31 Do your best, prepare for the worst—
then trust God to bring victory.
God is merciful even in death. The Beauty Within Seminar was wonderful. It was 100% God. He knew that if Janice died that week it would change what has been something that impacted people’s lives. He knew if Janice died the day after The Beauty Within, the exhaust for Holly and Richard would be overwhelming. Those little details, He knows every one and He cares.