An Ebenezer... (a memorial stone)

This is a photo of my love...1984

 

In 1987...when I met him, he hadn't changed much. = ) 

And I used to LOVE to wear this jacket of his! 

On this rainy Sunday afternoon that beckons one to snuggle under large soft quilts and sip tea...I invite you to come and "remember" with me as I continue to walk this week's journey of "Remembrance". I have pulled out a small notebook I found yesterday that contains the prose Bill read at The Cellar that I spoke about in my Valentine's Post. 

That was a crucial day in my life in Christ...a pivitel point. Just as this week has been. A time to set an "Ebenezer" at my place of standing so as to receive the Grace of God in this "stone of help" that speaks of God's true reality in our lives as His. 

Let's travel back to a Saturday night...February 1987...close to midnight. 

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Imagine a dark, low lit, smoky "cellar"...in this case it's an underground tavern called..."The Cellar" in Blacksburg, Va...a college town. 

Bill...a man I had not met yet...my destined husband-to-be...the guy in the picture above...takes off his jacket to reveal a ripped white long underwear type shirt with ripped jeans and boots. 

He sits upon a wooden stool...one leg up and his guitar cradled in his lap. 

He has just belted out U2's "Trip Through Your Wires" and now...he sets his guitar down on the floor...he puts his hands together...he then sits up tall and places his hands on his knees...we, the audience, wait...to listen...

"Everyday I come out and I stand on the edge of this mountain, 

to the point of nearly falling off. 

And I light My candle and I roll up My sleeves, 

in case a hand is also needed. 

And I stand erect with My ribs lifted 

and I fill My lungs with the breath I will use 

and I open My mouth, pulling back My lips, exposing My teeth, 

and depressing My tongue and in a loud voice thundering with the desperation of My words I call out to you.....

 'I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

...yet quietly sighing with the gentleness of My beckoning, 

 

'See how I have loved even you.'

And while you even sit at the very foot of My mountain, 

yet your hearing has been blocked by the hardening of your heart and you do not hear Me. 

 
I would climb down and come to you to take you by the shoulders and shake your bones, but I have been there once already and have already said, 

 

"It is finished." 

 

And so I will wait for you. 

And I will come out again tomorrow. 

And I will call to you once again. 

And I will remain faithful to you, for faithful I AM. 

 

Maybe one day you will look up 

from the weeping and grieving of your soul 

when your heart has been broken, 

broken even to being opened. 

And you will hear My calling to you, 

and you will answer Me, 

and you will come to Me and you will stay with Me, 

and you will be who I AM."

 
~ Bill McCarthy

After he finished this...in the silent pregnant pause that came after...you hear the clinking of his guitar as he picks it up and puts the guitar strap over his shoulder and begins to sing..."Jesus is My Treasure" by Jeff Chapman. 

I am undone. I am crying...deep sobs...heaving. My best friend takes me ...leads me out into the dark of night. As I walk up the stairs from the cellar...from the pit. I see the clear night sky...I see the moon shining. I say to my friend...after being asked, "What's wrong with you?" ...I say..."I miss him....I miss God."