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| June Redding |
This SEEDS
vignette will depart from our normal formula. This one occurred so naturally I
just decided to use it as it happened. I employed very few modifications.
Occasionally
I meet someone who just quietly carves out a corner in my heart. Love for them
just grows easily and I wonder when I didn’t love them.
SEEDS has
been designed to highlight women God is using. Ordinary women doing extraordinary things. SEEDS is a place for
stories to be shared. Narratives of what God is doing in the spheres of
everyday life. Through these stories I am learning that sometimes the
extraordinary is really just the ordinary
fleshed out with compassion and excellence.
Often I
think about the women who followed Jesus during and through his ministry. Women
who ministered quietly. Women who did what needed to be done, using the
resources available. These women were no ordinary force to be reckoned
with—they were the last at the cross. And first at the tomb. These ordinary
women carried the Gospel message on this side of the cross first. They were the
first to share the Good News.
Women carry
the Good News still. Women I admire. Women I watch. Women I read. Ann Voskamp.
Liz Curtis Higgs. Beth Moore. Donna Gaines. Priscilla Shirer. Kay Arthur. We
live in an extraordinary era of God doing wonders, and these women are
documenting the movement of his hand through their books, their blogs and their
conferences.
But that’s
just the tip of the iceberg.
You have
seen photographs of icebergs. Great snow and ice mountains complete with all
the crags, cliffs and precipices. But beneath the chilling waters, underneath
the broken shards of ice the underside of the mountain floats. And the
underside of the mountain is larger and broader than the topside, but not
readily visible.
Many of the
women featured on SEEDS live on the underside of the iceberg. Rarely seen. Visibly
hidden. But God is working through them; he is using them to move the kingdom
forward. Inch by inch.
I want to introduce
you to one of the women who lives on the underside of the iceberg.
The Young
Adult group mentioned in the Chambers’
post Don’t Play Church recently gathered
and visited someone incredibly special.
June Redding
is the precious community grandmother of our church. June lost her sweetheart,
Dan, last year to cancer. Dan and June were a beautiful team to watch. They
were servants. They were an interesting contrast: Dan’s gruff to June’s sweet.
But after a while you realized gruff was just the exterior of Dan. His
interior—gentleness. And beneath the sweetness of June’s exterior runs a cord
of backbone steel. I loved to watch them together. In the last year God has
used that steel backbone to enable June to walk through her days. To stand up
under daily life absent of Dan and his enormous presence.
 |
| Dan and June Redding |
I did not
give June the normal list of questions prepared for SEEDS women. Actually I
hadn’t planned to, but you see God decides things and then clues you in on his
plans. This time thankfully I was listening to his plan.
The Young
Adult Group visited June one Sunday night. About eighteen of us piled in cars
and drove the nine miles out to June’s farm. These wonderful kids rolled and
unfolded out of the cars and carried enough food in for a Thanksgiving feast:
meatloaf and chicken, corn pudding and green beans, salads and pasta, pies and
cakes.
We told June
to do nothing in preparation. Nothing. (She didn’t listen. Her apple
upside-down cake sat warm on the stove.)
June greeted
every single person; if she didn’t know their names (and many she did) she
asked. She patted and loved and welcomed.
We prayed
and she filled her plate first and sat down in the middle of the open living
room, her plate piled high, and watched. Her sweet face displayed the joy in
her heart. Missing Dan overwhelmed her that week, and I believe part of the joy
in her eyes came from knowing what Dan would have thought about having all
these young people in his house.
After dinner
the group gathered around June’s tilted-back recliner. One of our leaders asked
June to share with the group.
“What do you
want me to share?”
“Anything
you think we need to know.”
For the next
forty-five minutes June talked to the group. There they (we) sat in a
semi-circle around June. Some on the sectional, some on the fireplace hearth,
some in chairs and some on the floor. And they listened. And some even asked
questions.
“What do you
think is the secret to happiness?”
“Well, I’ll
tell you.” June counted the answers on her fingers. “Love God first. This is
the most important. There’s not anything more important than this. Love each
other. Be kind to each other. Take care of each other. Go to church.”
June shared
stories of how she and Dan met, how they decided to get married, their work in
the Red Cross. Her smile broadened when she recollected getting off an airplane
in Texas and seeing Dan. Apparently he was extremely handsome in his cowboy hat.
More than
once the group laughed. Out loud. More than once June told stories no one
expected.
We left that
day far richer than when we came. We left that day far wiser than when we came.
We left that day understanding a little more that life with Christ is anything
but boring—it is an adventure.
Before we
left someone rephrased the happiness question.
“What is the
most important element in any relationship? What advice would you give?
June didn’t
miss a beat. Those precious fingers counted off the reasons once again.
“Love God.
That’s the most important. Nothing is more important than a relationship with
him. Love each other. Be kind to each other.”
June lives
out her answers.
On Sunday
mornings she arrives far earlier than anyone else. She stands in the kitchen
with an apron looped over her neck and tied behind her neck. Patiently and
methodically she stands and stirs the scrambled eggs. Pan after pan. For a long
time she carried Nanny her coffee in a green mug long before Nanny even asked.
June is a
servant.
June does
things no one sees.
June loves
the young people of our church.
We talk a
great deal at our church about Love Does. Love doesn’t just talk; it’s not just
about words. Love Does.
June does.
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