Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren.”
~Proverbs 13:22 (NLT)
Around the time I married in 2002, I moved to the small town of Berea, Kentucky. I had recently returned to the Christian faith, and I was like a baby Christian. I landed in a small church where I was nurtured, nourished, and loved. My husband and I grew in our faith, and we made some very precious friends.
Over the years, those friends held our hands as we traveled through some dark valleys–two deployments, a miscarriage, Jeff’s dad’s illness and eventual death, Jeff’s leukemia treatments and death, my widowhood and stint as a single mom. It was tough, and I had to reach out for help more often than I wanted. People showed up with grace and love, as the body of Christ is intended to do.
One of my Berea friends, Ginger, became so beloved by our family that we came to call her “Nana Ginger.” She served as a spiritual mentor who ministered to me in multiple ways over the years. She rejoiced alongside me on my celebratory days, and she mourned with me on my darkest ones. After my miscarriage, Jeff was deployed and I was alone in my grief. She listened to me cry and vent many times during that tumultuous season. She often picked up groceries for us during Jeff’s illness. She was there the day Jeff went home to be with Jesus. And when the time came for me to remarry and move away from these blessed friends, she prayed and cried with me on my last day at church.
This lady loved me so well! But as the tributes have poured onto social media, I am stunned at the magnitude of her influence: how many others she mentored, how many saw her as a spiritual mother, how many called her “Nana Ginger,” how many she prayed with and ministered to in their darkest moments. She pointed so many of us to Jesus, and she loved us all well!
Ginger leaves behind a legacy of love and service that many of us strive to emulate. Her passing leaves a void we cannot fill, but her legacy of loving Jesus and loving people is a jar of living water we can pick up and carry to a wandering, hurting generation. May we take this inheritance and pass it on.