This is a true story of mine regarding two necklaces which always bring to me joyful tears as precious, irreplaceable gifts which usher forth memories that truly do last my lifetime; perhaps not only here on Earth but also in Heaven.
As you partake in these hugely memorable times of my life, my prayer is that you, too, reflect on the beauty of the love of a gift given by someone in your life whose love for you is without end just as our heavenly Father’s…
Selah.
My family and I had a very late Christmas celebration this year (it was in early February.) It is so highly important to us that we have family all together on our Christian worship celebrations, so this makes it very easy for us to change the day we celebrate.
My husband, the Emergency Room nurse, is always honored by me in his profession because healing bodies and saving lives through the anointed gifts God has given him is far more important to me than matching the calendar date for Christmas, our anniversary and such. The meaning is so much more important (our American calendar is not correct anyway. We should be using the Jewish calendar.) The celebrations of God’s works are far more important to both us rather than the date as we worship His holy days in Spirit and in truth because we do worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
Not only did Duane have to work this Christmas of 2019, before we picked a date to celebrate the birth of our Father’s begotten Son, Duane also had a leadership conference of several days out of town. I had decided to put the best last, looking forward to him coming home and then have our Christmas party after. I am an excellent planner!
I have to give this side note: we have been married now for over forty years. Sometimes I love being alone with God. I made great plans for my ‘quiet’ time (that’s time apart from Duane – I am not really very quiet) with a joyous expectation. On one of these days I was just stepping inside from taking our two puppies outside: Rocky, a male fawn pug, and Tina, a rescued Terrier mix. Oh! How I love them! As the three of us were again inside, Duane was talking on the phone, leaving a message. We both know to talk long so the other one has time to get to our landline. I found myself loudly calling (but knowing full well he can’t hear me): “Don’t hang up! Don’t hang up! God, help!!” I was so excited to talk to my man whom I love to be away from sometimes. That, Beloved, is healthy! I was so thankful that after being married since 1979 I still loved getting phone calls from my Sweetheart! When his conference was over, we were both more than ready to be together again… and he had a sweet homecoming!
Soon it was time for our Christmas party! One of the things I put on my Christmas list was a mustard seed necklace: and I got it! I gave Duane all the details about the exact one I could find that also would carry a memory to me of my Aunt Lulu. Her name was Lucille Evans (I can’t even remember her middle name anymore for she died when I was only six years old.)
For some reason my mother called Aunt Lulu Annie. Aunt Lulu was beautiful like my mom but her hair was different; she had a lot of red in it. I loved her just as much as I loved my mom and I always had planned (as a child from about the time of four until I was six, when she died) to grow up and live with her in her apartment until I wanted to get married. I pictured her the same age and I would be twenty… Aunt Lulu never did get married. She died in her thirties of cancer. I don’t know if she loved God, for she never spoke of Him to me. I do know Lulu went to church, so at the very least I’m believing she called out to Him as she faced our last enemy: death.
Aunt Lulu had been in the Navy as a switchboard operator. I was always so proud of her! She was fun: I remember going to apartment with my brothers often and when we would spend the night (she had a rollout bed) she’d set us up in weird and fun places to sleep, like a big table cart of some kind with blankets over it to make a really nifty tent!
Once upon a time we made gingerbread cookies. Beloved, when you truly love someone you never stop missing them. As of today, I am sixty-three. Lulu died when I was six or seven and tears of longing for her are rolling down my cheeks right now! Pray for that kind of love!
Another time she made vanilla pudding and as I took my very empty bowl to the kitchen, I told her: “You don’t have to wash this, I licked it clean!” I must have been about four years old and I’ll never know if she knew I was only teasing her! If she had lived longer, it would have come up and we could have had another great memory and a laugh! She did play along with me and said something about how she wouldn’t need to wash it. It is amazing how smart tiny tots can be, and using a truly fun sense of humor! Licking it clean: indeed!
Beloved: my Aunt Lulu was beautiful, funny and bright. I also remember when my mother told me there is NO SANTA CLAUS! I remember first thinking: “She could have let me enjoy him longer…” I was only three years old. Lulu was sitting in the kitchen with us and she said teasingly: “Now watch! She’s going to cry!”
I immediately retorted: “I am not going to cry!” I was truly disappointed to be told there is no Santa: I also remember asking my mother if I could call my friend and tell her. She said yes! Looking back, I knew that wasn’t right. My little friend (younger than me) got mad and hung up. But I’ll never forget Aunt Lulu trying to lessen the pain of her three-year-old niece upon finding out Santa wasn’t real…
Another of my favorite memories, and I’ll stop with this one, was of getting into a black taxi cab on a dark and very, very rainy day with one of my brothers and being taken to her place. I have no doubt, that is one of the reasons that I love rain. It was such a thrill, again as a very young child, to get into a cab with my brother two year’s my senior and going to our beloved Aunt Lulu’s for more fun, more memories to make and more love from the loving sister of my mom.
It was a Christmas, I am sure, (or maybe my birthday) that Lulu gave me a gift that I instantly and evermore cherished. It was the mustard seed necklace. I remember it was a dark kind of gold colour, there was liquid inside the ball and that tiny little mustard seed floating ever around it. I immediately was taken with it and always remember it as one of my prized possessions. God is truly awesome even in little things… I knew as that tiny child of about four, that this mustard seed had an extraordinary significance. Auntie didn’t tell me anything about it other than that it was a mustard seed…
Beloved, please see this: God impressed a tiny little girl who had only gone to a church twice while living in her parent’s home, that this mustard seed had an exceptionally important meaning I knew not. When I became a Christian in my early twenty’s (thank You, God, I didn’t die before that and go straight to Hell!) I soon learned The Parable of The Mustard Seed. Do you see how God impresses His greatness even on a little girl? He does! Oh! He does!
Selah!
So between Aunt Lulu who I wanted to live with as a young woman for a year or two before I got married, all of my memories of her (all good!) and this mustard seed necklace, I thank God for the joyful tears I am still crying as I write this Joy Story! Joy comes from God! And we need to reflect on all the ways He has blessed us not only in and of Himself; but also of the people and the physical items which relate His love, greatness and glory!
Selah.
And as this past Christmas of 2019, it was time for me to have another mustard seed necklace. Duane and I have picked out a beautiful one for one of our granddaughters (and we must get all of them one at some time.) Because my beloved and irreplaceable Aunt Lulu gave me my first and cherished necklace; the next one had to come from Duane.
This mustard seed necklace is different, of course. It is truly just as beautiful and endearing to me because my special love, my husband whom I am in covenant with, knew how much a new one would mean to me! I pray I will never lose this one…
I don’t know at all what happened to my first necklace from Aunt Lulu. I do wish I had it still: but the memories are always with me and I see how God started opening the gates of Heaven to me through my beautiful auntie and a remarkable, memorable gift with its’ hidden message from God.
Selah.
SCRIPTURAL TRUTHS FOR THIS JOY STORY:
Mark 4:30-32 The Parable of the Mustard Seed
Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
Growing up in a home without the love for God, an invalid father, heavy financial hardships, and tremendous (sometimes dangerous) discord is always difficult. Add on to that extreme shyness, a feeling of inferiority, and some may think this girl was rejected. But God’s hand was on her and His heart was for her. Today, Ann Marie Turner has performed many great services in Jesus’ name for the love of God and man; and for herself! She has ministered in the male correctional for over ten years. Along with this website, Ann is the author of Joy Stories, Volume One and The Free Incarcerated Man. Writing about the joy of the Lord and the victory that is available for a willing soul is one of Ann’s now greatest joys! Ann’s prayer for you is to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony. Celebrate the God of the Bible and your personal victories in Christ unceasingly! Revelation 12:11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.