Last spring when I was out one morning, I heard bagpipes. Living here tucked away by the cemetery was new to me and as I peered over the fence, it was our first funeral. Mrs. Sargent. The bagpipes played and the family stood together in solidarity. The air was as crisp as the tears rolling down their cheeks.
The cars left, but one keeps coming back, almost daily. Mr. Sargent comes to visit his beloved. Sometimes he lays on the headstone with tears to match those shed at the service; other times he crouches down next to her as if to whisper to her the tender things in his soul.
He misses her. It has become the pattern of his days to visit her here.
As the summer went on, he visited so often that in this little cemetery where there are no roads, tire tracks lead from the entrance to the cemetery directly to Mrs. Sargent.
The tire tracks through the grass make me wonder: what do I keep coming back to? In the morning, midday, and evening, what I am returning to?
Where I choose to let my heart drive will create tracks, patterns on the fresh grass of my soul. Over time they will get deeper and deeper.
Where are the tracks of your life leading? Have you driven the same path over and over frequently but no longer know where you are heading?
Mrs. Sargent, she is greatly loved, just as I am greatly loved by my God who wants nothing more than for my path to lead to Him.
Fight for the patterns that will lead you Home.
As spring has returned and the Nebraska snow has melted, I saw Mr. Sargent this afternoon. He hadn’t been around much this winter, and he was checking on the grass and changing out the decorations. We talked about the tire tracks, and he said his friend encouraged him to stop coming so much, that it was time to create some new paths. He looked down, kicked the grass and said, “I’ve started praying. It has made me rethink some things.”
I could tell he missed her very much. That his sorrow and his love hadn’t faded. Yet it seemed his new paths were leading him to something more.
Mr. Sargent is compelled by love. Love is what you will find in purest form in the eyes of our God. Fight for the patterns that will lead you to Him.
