I love the game of baseball for many reasons but maybe the most profound is because the objective of the game is such a parallel truth to live… to make progress on your way to getting home.
Myra Hooper has been on quite a journey. This past week she heard Jesus say, “welcome home”. Myra passed from this life into eternity but not before lining up a wonderful friend to raise the love of her life, her daughter Nevaeh.
Betty and I were so grateful we could take them both on a special trip to Universal last month for Neveah’s tenth birthday. Myra has been spending the last year just enjoying their relationship and trying to create memories for Nevaeh as she knew she’d have to be leaving her daughter sometime in the near future.
Myra can teach us all some valuable lessons. She taught me that finishing well is a lot more important than starting poorly. She taught me that we should enjoy our relationships while we have time to enjoy them. Myra was so happy that when she first came to Hope Gardens we were able to reunite her with her only daughter. You see Myra had not been living a healthy lifestyle and her daughter had been taken away.
At Hope Gardens Myra got serious about letting God turn her life around and God rewarded her with her daughter back. He knew how much time she had left. He wanted her to reconcile with Neveah. How beautiful to see God work in this way and looking back I learn what a privilege it is for God to allow us to be a small part of someone’s story of redemption and restoration.
I will be overseeing Myra’s memorial service this Tuesday at Hope Gardens in Sylmar where Myra and Neveah were reunited. You are invited to come. Deed and Truth will be supplying the flowers as a tribute to the beautiful transformation that God did in Myra’s life. If you’d like to donate to help with the flowers you are welcome to partner in this way.
We mourn for Neveah and Myra’s parting but we rejoice to know that God has brought Myra safely home. Myra will never be homeless again… she is home where she belongs.
– Pastor Dan