Backstage Life,
Remembering Pete
Is it just coincidence? Maybe it’s wisdom. Is it my imagination? Perhaps it’s godly insight. God forbid it’s a curse. Could it be a gift? It may not be a spiritual gift but it IS a gift. Sometimes I get a sense that God is blessing me with a glimpse of what He sees. Maybe I’m just seeing what I see and he gives me a glimpse of how he feels. I could be wrong and it may just be my own emotions and experience. What I do know is that sometimes I feel so blessed. Blessed by the emotions that overwhelm my heart as I peer through the window of real life. Sometimes it’s my own life and sometimes it’s another’s.
It happened to me today and the thought of it now pulls on the corners of my heart and tears spring to my eyes. I had the great honor to sit and witness sisters grieve the loss of their father. I’m sure they thought I was just an onlooker. They never suspected that my heart grieved with them and quite truly it was so much more.
The setting is ordinary, backstage sort of ordinary. The kind of ordinary that happens in all women’s lives and yet it’s never part of their story. It should be. Today it was beautiful.
I don’t know how to eloquently say that I stopped into the small salon where I work to file my nails. We are closed on Saturday so I knew it would be quiet. The owner, my friend, is the one who just lost her father. She was doing her sister’s hair. She had stained rubber gloves on and a brush in her hand. Her sister’s hair was full of foils. The scene seriously couldn’t be any less remarkable. Yet, it was one of the most touching things I have seen in such a long time.
They welcomed me in even though I said I didn’t have to impose. I’m pretty sure my nail shortening could have waited. “No, no, come on in. Would you mind if we sang a song we want at our Dad’s service?” Of course, I didn’t mind. It was an honor to listen.
As the guitar began to play it’s tune the salon faded away. As they sang the song of their heart I could see two little girls giggling and hugging their father. They loved each other and they loved him. Two grown women singing a country song with lyrics that almost described the love they have for their Dad. They played it over and over. Singing with broken hearts as they prepared to offer it up to him and to God. It was the way they wanted to say goodbye. They want the world to know how special he was; “The kind of man it feels good to be around.”[1]
I thought of my Dad as they sang their song, a man I lost many years ago. I thought of my husband and knew he would hope that his kids would have this same kind of love for him when he passed. My heart was full. Full for them, and full for me. And then I realized there was so much more going on in the salon.
I could feel the joy in their parents hearts, having kids who loved each other. Girls that laugh and sing together. Siblings who cry together. Sisters doing each other’s hair. It was such a precious moment. I wanted to sneak a video but decided I should use my words.
I got a strong sense of how beautiful life is and what a gift it is to feel a loss like theirs. Their loss is deep because their love was deeper still. These are the moments that make life better. The moments that should be remembered. These two ladies were living their everyday life and yet a miracle was happening. God was rejoicing over the love His children had in their hearts. Their tenderness and tears mean so much to Him, he puts their tears in a bottle (Psalm 56:8).
Don’t miss the small moments. It seems like the backstage time is when we are preparing for life. It isn’t. Life is backstage. Life is the everyday moments. It happens in our laughter and our love. It happens in our tears. Life is when your friend texts you from across the room asking for prayer because she is afraid someone will look at her backstage.
I have more emotion than I can describe and I think that in these moments God gives the gift of eternity in my heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). I will not let it pass me by and be forgotten. I am so blessed to have witnessed the private moments of two beautiful women sharing their life today. This is the kind of life God calls abundant. Don’t miss it.
[1] Ashley McBryde, Bible and a .44.