I love to introduce y’all to my writer friends. Today Nicole Quigley has stopped by with a fun story about faith and family. Her debut Young Adult Novel Like Moonlight at Low Tide is a finalist in the ACFW Carol Award and is getting rave reviews. Without further ado, here’s Nicole!
Cara is a great storyteller, and so I thought I’d share one of my favorite stories from my family on her blog.
My grandparents won the Florida lottery back in the early 1990s and never told a soul. Ok, it wasn’t the big jackpot, but it was a kindly little sum that certainly would have made news around my Irish family faster than we could say, “Let’s open a pub.”
We found out The Secret years later, the week we buried my grandfather. When we began to call funeral homes, my grandmother broke down in tears from the terrible guilt of it all.
“I wanted to tell you, but your Poppo wouldn’t let me!” My poor, blue-eyed grandmother had probably never kept a secret that long in her life.
Poppo was a prudent WWII vet who decided to put the winnings toward pre-planned funerals for the both of them, a wise decision that helped lighten the burden off of the family when the time came.
I smile now when I think of the things my loved ones and I will discover about each other after we pass on. “You mean to tell me they had this all along?”
So often in well-intentioned churches we talk about our loved ones who don’t yet believe. We wait hopefully for them to come to know the Lord who loves them so God may be glorified and they can share in His joy. And perhaps, in some small-minded way we stuff down deep inside, we look forward to the day when we can simply say, “Now you see what I’ve been talking about!”
But, oh, does my grandfather’s little lesson remind me that there will be another side to that story. There will come a day when all of our loved ones will see the Lord in all his glory, what he’s done, and all he offers. And they’ll come to see that not only did we Christians have a relationship with Jesus to get us through life, we had God’s word as well—everything we need to live lives of service and love.
A study by Lifeway Research last year suggests that only 19 percent of church goers read their Bible every day. Although the good news was that nearly 40 percent read their Bible at least one a week, it still reminds me of how many of us don’t read our Bible as if it were, you know, what we keep telling everyone it is—the very Word of God. Why that would be like having a winning lottery ticket and never cashing it in! I am writing this piece because I am no better.
In a world filled with the wonder of back porches and fireflies, nursery schools and wise old grandfathers, we must treasure the great love letter from our Creator—because of our reverence for the author and also our love for those who will never read it.
When we meet our friends in that new morning, I hope they will not wonder at why we would have had a treasure and kept it buried. Rather, I hope they will be able to say about us much what my family can say about my grandparents.
They had a treasure, and they used it well to prepare them for heaven. And because they did this, it helped lighten our burden, too.
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” –Matthew 4:4
Nicole Quigley is the author of young adult fiction novel Like Moonlight at Low Tide (Zondervan). USA Today calls her award winning debut “a darkly poignant inspirational romance that will linger in the mind long after reading it.” Visit Nicole online at www.facebook.com/nicolequigleybooks and www.nicolequigleybooks.com.