Posted on 04/04/2021 7:04:59 AM PDT by Mrs. Warrior
Recently I misplaced my cross necklace and in my search for it. I rode up stairs on my stair lift to look for it in a room that has a hope chest from our wedding. I have a collection that has a purported connection to the Titanic. It consists of a lovely lace wedding dress draped with a gold and pearl rosary, satin wedding shoes, a rose colored satin peignoir set with lace gloves and a parasol. One woman crossed the ocean with a dream and a dress made for married love. The ship sank and I wonder did the woman live? Did she ever walk down the aisle in those shoes and find the other half of her heart to make her whole? The collection also included a bible adorned with lovely artwork and inscribed with her family tree.
My husbands ancestors came to America on a ship from Poland while my ancestors came much earlier, probably in the Scottish emigrations of the late 18th century and some crossed the prairies and settled Mount Hope, Kansas, while others remained in New England.
We hold that God arranged our separate family journeys to merge into one destination. Recently our granddaughters were asking us how we met. I came from an abusive family situation and as a teenage girl I ran away from home to save my life. I did not know where to go. While hiding in the woods I heard God telling me “Go back, hope is coming to you and help is on the way”. I believed in that promise and I went back.
Soon I met my husband-to-be in high school. His family had different religious beliefs and as our romance developed, my parents told me they did not like him because he had different beliefs than theirs. However, he too had storms to endure over his faith. He was thrown out of his family over his newly found faith in Christ and came to live with mine for a time. His presence stopped the abuse that I believe was intended to take my life. He became like a guardian angel. I asked God to show me if this man was the other half of my heart to make us into one. I had never known real love and when we married I gave him my promise to love him all the days of my life.
How does one love when they do not know love? As my husband showed me the tenderest love I learned about what love is. In a hope chest of what a young girl thinks she needs for married life, I found a simple wooden cross with leather cords that I had given my husband. This was the promise; as Jesus hung on the cross and soldiers put a spear trough His heart, he opened His chest and blood and water gushed out. The Blood being for forgiveness and the Water represented the Holy Spirit who would be our Guide. This was the promise of eternal love and life.
As an active woman on a farm I needed something that was strong enough to keep up with me as I worked and the simple rugged wooden and leather cross that I gave my husband accompanies me.
We read in proverbs about hanging around your neck mercy and truth and to search for wisdom like a treasure. I found the cross necklaces that my children had given me over the years. One of them said “a mother holds her child's hand for a little while, but their hearts forever”.
On their birthdays I gave our granddaughters small crosses to hang around a child's heart. Now as they begin to grow up, I told them that God has created a heart mate,for you right and now you are beginning your journey to find him and he, you. “We love the joy you give us your little girl faith warms our hearts”. I told them that they were pearls of great price; and encouraged them to look for the one who would know that he found a treasure worth everything he could ever have! I encourage them to hold close the belief that God has a good promise for you. I gave these girls a hope chest, inside was love and a white bible I carried on my wedding day!
It is the gospel truth written by God that when He looked and saw mankind hating and separating from each other that he sent His Son Jesus to break down the middle wall of separation, to make of the two one man so that man would no longer be strangers. One day the lamb and the lion will lie down together. Until that time, hope lies in the promise that “until I return for you open the hope chest of the bible and find love and peace, the holy spirit will teach comfort and live within you. In the heavenly mansions will we find scrolls of stories of mankind and understand the love of the Ancient of Days ready to be revealed in the last time. Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the hope that was set before Him endured the cross despising the pain, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God, He lay down his life and took it up again.
Pirates steal treasure and bury it in the sand, they are thieves who know what other thieves think and they kill all but one who buried the treasure and tell them to make a treasure map. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but looses his soul?
I started to have chest pains when I climbed the stairs my husband ordered a stair lift, and installed it for me. I can now reach the treasures that are in the upstairs of my house. I used to sing to my little ones “red and yellow black and white Jesus loves the children of the world they are precious in His sight”. He rose so He could carry his children to their Father in heaven. My husband told me I was his treasure being carried on the stair lift.
When our family sits around the table I see in the promise through good times and bad in sickness and health for better or worse; I will always treasure my heart full of the love born out of a promise that hope was on the way.
America is a treasure and while some pirates want to steal from it, Jesus said “guard your heart for out of it are the issues of life”. Those who love this homeland know that there is a map that leads to the treasure; the US Constitution written by godly men. We the people have held onto the promise and have it written on the doorpost of our nations heart and family. Hope is what led some to sacrifice their lives for the greater good of all and the treasure of our nation is it's people.
We have just begun to write our next generation's story and they will have a hope chest where all the treasure of wisdom and grace and the story of our nation will have the plots and characters, some who were evil, and others who were good!
The plural of "treasure" is "treasures" (no apostrophe).
The possessive of "treasure" (singular) is "treasure's."
The possessive of "treasures" (plural) is "treasures'."
Regards,
Excellent story and written so well. Thank you for sharing your blessings and highlighting all of ours in this blessed nation. Happy Easter! Christos anesti.
Apostrophe’s litter our written landscape nowadays. Evidently their proper usage is no longer taught.
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Another beautiful message. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing that. It was very well written. BTW my grandfather almost booked passage on the Titanic, but thank goodness he was poor, lol. He came over from England within a day or two of the Titanic and even claimed that his smaller ship passed them in the Atlantic. He heard the tragic news about the sinking when he arrived in Canada a few days later.
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