As we pulled in to her drive way I noticed there were weeds all over the flower beds and the house looked empty. We got out of the car and took a walk around the yard where I noticed ant hills and more weeds. As I looked into the windows of her back porch I saw her ferns were still hanging where she had left them but were beginning to fade away just as she had. (I thought to myself she would have a fit if she saw her home like this) She was so particular about her home and her yard!
Josh had been wondering around too, and he called me over to look at an old sign he had found. The sign read "RUMFELT'S TELEVISION SALES AND SERVICE" It was old and rusted. I began to cry, the anger left my soul and the heart break set in as I stared at that sign, I thought of that house and that sign, a sign of the family business my grandfather now gone to be with the Lord also had started 40 years ago!
I thought of how I was standing right in the middle of all they had worked for all they had spent their lives creating, and now they are both gone and here it all sits alone with weeds growing all over it just waiting for the day they put a "FOR SALE" sign in front of it.
Behind my tears I heard the still small voice of god speak to me...He said Cody "is this really what you think of your grandparents?" Is this really the legacy you believe they intended to leave behind, what they wanted you to remember them for?"
NO NO NO! I thought to myself, this is a house, this is a sign from a business, the people who once ran that business and lived and kept this house are gone. BUT what they left behind is still very much living! The five children and over 20 grand and great-grand children are still here, each of them carrying a piece of Forrest and Faye into their own lives. They left behind a family...a whole pile of people made better to have known them, to have been encourage, and taught how to live life by them. They left a legacy of faith and love to those who came in contact with them. All they lived for and worked for in not sitting in that pile of bricks. What they lived and worked for is still very much alive in the family they left behind, and I would be doing them an injustice to think they would want me to look at that as what had truly mattered in their lives.
So I guess what I mean is tonight God used my grandparent's home to put some things into perspective for me. What kind of life am I living? Am I living my life to earn material things that will grow up with weeds and rot after I am gone, or am I living for the things that matter....am I living to leave a legacy of good character and love, one of faith and giving, one that will last in those who knew me long after I am gone. I want to live a life that matters like my grandparents did.
So to that house, as Josh & I sat on the front porch, I said goodbye tonight, but the legacy of Forrest and Faye Rumfelt it will flow through my veins and rest in my soul until I see them again.
ONE LOVE
Cody
