Aunt Sandy

I received a phone call from my sister Kathy's cell phone on Father's Day afternoon. She stated that it was urgent..and I needed to call her back as soon as possible. Before hanging up the phone, her voice starting wavering, and she said, "Sandy's dead, call me!".

I had been unable to find my home phone, so I scrambled for my cell. "What?......Sandy Murphy?" You'd have to understand my aunt Sandy to realize how unbelievable it was that she could have possible been the Sandy in question. You see, Aunt Sandy is the type of woman who has probably never had a pedicure, going to the city meant driving probably twenty some miles to Bozeman to get groceries...or "feed" ..and even then she had to really hustle, because she couldn't wait to return back home to the "country". The woman has killed rattlesnakes with shovels for goodness sake! She butchered chickens (and could even stomach frying one for lunch the very same afternoon) This was not a high maintenance woman! I guess what I'm trying to convey...is that she was the softest "tough" woman I've ever known. She really had a tender heart. She cared, really cared for people. It was the genuine type of caring...the kind where you felt 100% acceptance and love from her, regardless of how "different" the two of you might be from each other. When I was a young girl visiting her farm in the summers during summer vacation, I misunderstood. I thought that what made going to stay at Aunt Sandy's so great was fact that she lived on the most amazing plot of land in America, and had the most incredible neighbors, house, husband and animals. I really wanted to live there, too! I even thought I wanted to marry a farmer.....just like my Aunt Sandy! (can't you just picture me?) I realize now that what really made my Aunt Sandy special... was the fact that she was completely content in the old trailer house that she lived in, her ordinary farm, animals, and long, bumpy dirt road, BECAUSE of her love for the LORD...not that she necessarily genuinely had the best of the best. (Uncle Nolan excluded...he very well may just be) She got it. She found joy. She wasn't wrapped up in driving the right car, having the right clothes, living in the greatest house, having the "right" friends. She was content....she loved what she already had..and blessed others so richly with it! She didn't have the best "things"...or even the easiest life....but what she did with what she had is such an amazing testimony of the fulfillment we can find when we get things right with God....and give our lives completely to Him. The life she led points to what really counts when the hospital is forty miles away, the cell phones are out of range for service, so there's no way to call for help while her tender heart struggled its last. I'm so grateful that my Aunt Sandy "got it". I want for my life to reflect that I "get it" too....