The unbroken circle

Some years ago, Euphanel and Nick, our Texas buddies, Ted and I hit the Civil War trail in Georgia and ended up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the scene of the bloodiest battle in the history of our nation.  I did not know it then, but have since learned that my great grandfather, Elmer Sesler, was shot in the back in that battle. He was compensated by the government with 160 acres of undeveloped land in Kansas, packed up his Ohio family in their covered wagon and headed west, bent upon putting the horrors of Gettysburg behind him. 

My Sesler great-grandparents were Godly people. Their daughter, my grandmother Etta, met and married Christian "Colonel" Harlan Blair of Kentucky who also homesteaded 160 acres not far from the Seslers.  Etta and Harlan  parented one daughter: my mother, whom they named "Zema".  Etta and Harlan pioneered the building of a Methodist mission in Wilsey, Kansas, which became in time a white steepled church.  It stands to this day.  My mother, after attending college in Wichita, fled from the  church her parents had pioneered and married my father, Garnett, who had no deep Christian roots.

Because my grandfather Harlan Blair was twenty years older than my Grandmother Etta, he died when she was only 52 years old.  Grandmother Etta could not manage the farm she and her beloved husband had coaxed into productivity. She desperately needed my parents to move in with her and do the work she could not do alone.  In so doing, she suffered the terrible loss of having a Godly man at the head of her home.  Timid by nature, she was reluctant to speak of Jesus in a home that was no longer just her own. ...but my quiet Grandmother lived Jesus. Five years after her death, when I heard the stunning words of the Gospel,  I had already glimpsed the twinkling Light of Christ in my Grandmother.  I  literally ran toward the Light and am still running.  Many years later, when Ted and I brought my parents, Zema and Garnett,  from that same Kansas farm to Palo Alto, California, the love of Jesus drew them into the Holy Family of God. The Circle had not been broken, after all.

...back to the Civil War Trail:  The sleeping serpent of slavery had lay coiled under the table during the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The belief that "all men are created equal" was belied by the fact that slavery was legal in every one of the thirteen colonies.  Knowing that the real war would never get in the books, we four asked our Lord to reveal to us who these people were who fought and killed, marched and sang, wrote home, persevered, deserted, were wounded and died.  Nick had extensively researched information prior to our setting out on our journey.  He walked and talked us through cemeteries, museums and libraries in battleground settlements all along the Trail.  In one bookstore we met a touring pastoral couple from the north of Ireland. When they turned up in a bookstore at our next stop, the Spirit of God put into our minds that a Divine Plan was unfolding that was pressing to trump ours;  therefore it was no surprise when browsing in a bookstore at our next stop, there was the couple from Ireland!  We sought out a quiet restaurant and stepped into the lives of Stephen and Wendy Atkinson.  The love of Christ through Euphanel and Nick drew these two and their four children to their Round Top, Texas Retreat home for a vacation the following summer. That "vacation" led to the Atkinson family's moving to America to join in ministering the Gospel of Christ in our nation.

Now, to Gettysburg:  Nick, Euphanel, Ted and I were silenced as we stood overlooking the battleground that took the lives of 23,000 Northern fighters and 28,000 Southerners. We stood in reverence on the very ground where Lincoln delivered the words that would bring courage to a nation that was divided against itself.  Did my great-grandfather Sesler hear these very words from the lips of President Lincoln?  I will not know until I reach Heaven.

The Circle enlarges.  In my hands is a note from one of my precious granddaughters. Tears press against my eyelids as I read the lovely sentences she writes that speak to my Grandmother heart.  I will share with you only one phrase, for these words exalt Jesus and not me:  "...and I know it's all His work."  Those words will give me courage to continue my widow's journey, much as did my Grandmother Etta, until I join hands with the saints in the enormous unbroken Circle that surrounds the Throne of God.

                                                WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN

There are loved ones in the glory whose dear forms you often miss
When you close your earthly story, will you join them in their bliss?

In the joyous days of childhood oft they told of wondrous love
Pointed to the dying Saviour; now they dwell with Him above

You can picture happy gatherings 'round the fireside long ago
And you think of tearful partings when they left you here below

WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN BY AND BY, LORD, BY AND BY?
IN A BETTER HOME AWAITING IN THE SKY, LORD, IN THE SKY
 
Love,

Jo