Do it Lord....

This time last year my mom & I attended this event. My mom & I sat together with some friends, one of my mom's sister & her daughter were sitting several rows behind us and my sister and her friend were up in the balcony.
Before the event began, I kept looking around the sanctuary trying to locate our other family members and basically people-watching. It seemed like every time I turned around, I made eye contact with a lady who was a couple of rows behind us. To me, it got to the point where it was awkward because I didn't know this woman. She didn't look familiar to me but every time I turned around, she would look at me.

When intermission came, my mom and I went to look for my sister. As you can imagine, with 6,000 other women, it was a little crowded. As we're walking through the crowd, I realized that my mom was not right behind me. When I turned to look for her, imagine my shock when I see that she is talking to the woman that I kept making eye contact with earlier. As I'm trying to make my way back to her, I'm even more surprised to see my mom embracing this woman and I'm thinking, "who in the world is this?!" When I walk up, my mom says, "Cheryl, this is {insert name*}."

I'm choosing not to share her name because sometimes things happen in a family that happen to one or two family members but it inflicts pain on the extended family. The hurt may not be as deep as it is for those who are directly involved but it still hurts. I can't and won't share the details because it's not my story to tell but I'm part of the extended family and I believe God allowed us to cross paths with *her so that we can watch a story of forgiveness and redemption unfold before our eyes.

You can just imagine how utterly shocked I was. I hadn't seen her in a really long time. Within a few moments of this re-introduction, my sister walks up and my mom tells her who this woman is and in true Laura fashion, she hugs her and begins crying. After a few moments, we walk away, still in shock. When we walk back into the sanctuary, we see my aunt and cousin and we share with them who we just ran into. I would give anything to have a picture of their faces. Mouths literally dropped open! We see *her walking towards her seat so my aunt & cousin go to see her.

When Travis & the worship team come back, the first song they sing is "Do It, Lord." I knew the song and had heard it many times but was blown away by the words, they were so timely for what we had just experienced. I began crying and praying when we sang these words~

I see the brokenness of families brought to wholeness
I see the prodigals running home to You
Father's hearts now turning toward their children
And the children's hearts turning toward their father's

And even though we were scattered around the sanctuary, my mom, my aunt, my sister, my cousin and myself were singing these words as a prayer to our God, begging Him to do this for our family members.

It is a moment that I won't soon forget.
And to top it off, when Beth began her teaching, she focused on forgiveness.

Over the past year, we've seen God working in this situation. It's not what we want it to be but it's so much better than it was.

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13