Ordinary dishes

One of the people who chose to speak at the life celebration service for Marsha yesterday was a dear friend Jean Jacobs from The Church of the Holy Spirit Mattapan. She shared how Marsha had said to her that she was ordinary dishes not fine china, and I would add that she was. I think we both have always seen ourselves as ordinary folk although if you look at the picture there ain't nothing ordinary about her. We both knew that God can do extraordinary things through ordinary folk through the grace of God so freely given. It was so important to Marsha that people know that God has big things planned for all of us. It is not special people that matter but a special God that can make you matter. It is not our talents that we polish to make fine china but God's grace that makes people overlook the cracks and the chips and the loss of luster that we find in our ordinary dishes. I know in my life Marsha was the most important human companion to look through the flaws and see God's beauty in me and help me see it for myself. I think that was true for her with many people which is why so many were with us yesterday. You see Marsha never saw ordinary dishes as a negative, she always saw it as "if God can do this with my life don't you see he can do it with yours." I am so proud of the woman God gave to me when I didn't even know him. A gift of a lifetime second only to the power of God's own grace. Rest in peace my beauty. See you in my dreams.