My Grannie – Lavina “Kelly” Westgate
Have you ever felt that God doesn’t hear your prayers – let alone answer them? I certainly have. Over the past several years (decades really) I have reached out to God in prayer, petition, and trust asking for healing in my family. Sometimes I see his hand; however, many times I feel alone, falsely believing my heart-pain would last forever. Maybe you can relate. Looking around the world we witness broken hearts and family hurts in people of all walks of life – including those who pray. However, through it all God reveals a path into the healing our hearts desire.
Surrendering to Love
Through my healing journey I have come to believe we are all immersed in an ocean of great love – God’s love. When we surrender to his love healing happens and we experience true prosperity. God even promises that our descendants will never be cut off from his presence. Our first reading today beautifully reveals God’s promise to those who follow his way.
If you would hearken to my commandments,
your prosperity would be like a river,
and your vindication like the waves of the sea;
Your descendants would be like the sand,
and those born of your stock like its grains,
Their name never cut off
or blotted out from my presence. – Isaiah 48:18-19 (NABRE)
Yet, we must make the decision to surrender to God and follow his commandments. God even sent his son to show us the perfect way to surrender. When we follow Jesus Christ we float along the river of life, deeper into God’s great ocean of love. On this journey the human heart increases in beauty. It becomes illuminated with the light of life and good things happen!
Temptation is Also Present
However, temptation is also present. The Evil One, who tempted our first parents, is still here enticing us with lies designed to turn us against love – against God. He offers false promises of happiness and love through worldly means. Yet, only God can truly fulfill promises of happiness and love because he authored them.
When we believe the Evil One’s lies we find ourselves moving against the very thing our hearts yearn for – love itself. Instead of moving with the river of life into love we become like salmon swimming up-stream and our hearts become restless. Heartache and pain enter our hearts and a ripple effect takes place, a ripple effect that touches those we love. There is only one way to turn this around – we must surrender to God.
Following God
Our hearts yearn for God because they belong to God. The key is finding our way into love. God is love and the only way to unite our hearts with the heart of God is by growing in love. This is what Jesus did during his ministry. He followed, and was directed by, love because he is love. As Jesus told us, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6 (NABRE)
Jesus’ way is forgiveness, compassion, and complete trust in the Father. Which leads me back to the initial thought that arose in my heart when I reflected on today’s readings – God is always faithful, yet we must surrender to him. Spending time with God, allowing a divine friendship to develop with him, is the surest way to float along the river of life deeper into the ocean of his magnanimous love.
My Grannie
Yes, there will be challenges and temptations along the way. However, the best gift we can give ourselves, our children, the generations that follow, and the world is time committed to God fostering a true friendship with him. My maternal grandmother, Grannie, did this years ago. She spent time with God and as a result she become Catholic while pregnant with my mother. However, life wasn’t easy for her.
Grannie faced many hardships in her lifetime. As a young woman she lost her mother to cancer, many of her family members fell prey to alcoholism, she suffered poverty through the Depression, she married a man who did not know God, she suffered the stigma of being a descendant of Irish immigrants, and she suffered the pain of a divorce she didn’t want. However, Grannie took the bull by the horns and sought a friendship with God through her pain. I’m thankful she did.
As her descendant I am the beneficiary of her efforts. Through her faith a fruitful seed was planted and it grows in my heart. This seed continually calls me to follow God’s love and spend time with him. Yes, my family still needs healing; however, God is good and he is indeed answering many long time prayers this Advent season. Thank you Grannie for saying yes to a friendship with God and for allowing a seed of faith to be planted in our family. I miss you and I hope to see you in heaven some day.
God bless all of you. See you next week Friday – Carolyn
PS – Thank you to all of our readers for your kind responses to our reflections. They personally they warm my heart and they are a blessing in my life! I know the other writers appreciate your kind words as well.
Sacred Heart of Jesus – have mercy on us.
Father God – consume us.
Holy Spirit – enter into us.
Blessed Virgin Mary – pray for us.
