LOVE IS Series from Prism Book Group
First Corinthians 13:4-8a New International Version (NIV)
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8. Love never fails
Today's Special release features Julie B. Cosgrove's Greener Grasses
Today's Special release features Julie B. Cosgrove's Greener Grasses
LOVE DOES NOT ENVY...
Two
twins are so envious of each other's lives they can barely stand to be in the
same room. It has soured their relationships and their marriages. So why did
their mother state in her last bequest they spend fourteen days together with
their husbands in her house preparing it for auction? Can they do it? If not,
neither will get a penny from the estate.
Here
is an excerpt:
Hot
tears dripped down Erin’s not-often rouged cheeks. Sorry, Mom. But I have a
right to cry. It is your funeral, after all. She brushed them away with her
fingers, checking for mascara smudges. Out of the corner of her vision she
caught John’s stern glare. He nodded as the pastor continued.
“Marilyn’s
legacy is witnessed by this fully packed church. Her Christian charity touched
many lives, and for that we should praise God. She would not want us to be
sorrowful, but to raise our hands in hallelujahs that she is finally walking
the streets of gold, free of the pain, suffering, and heartaches of this dark
and fallen world on which she once trod.”
Erin’s
stomach felt as if Boy Scouts practiced their knotting skills in it. How could
she rejoice? She and Ellen were now orphans. Dad had been killed in a car wreck
five years prior. They had no other siblings. No more buffers lay between the
twins’ tendency to squabble. How would she face Ellen the rest of the day with
a plastered smile? Could she survive the sharp verbal pricks and superior,
disapproving glances unscathed? Deep down, she admitted to the ugly, forbidden
thought. Erin not only hated her sister for being born first, she despised her
mother for bearing twins.
The
thought made her bite the inside of her lip. She bowed her head and prayed John
wouldn’t make a social faux pas in conversation or her boys eat with the wrong
fork at the reception. And Lord, please keep me from dribbling anything on
this blouse. It’s the only good one I own.
Sibling Love
I guess most sisters
bicker as they grow up. We have a tendency to be a tad jealous of each other.
“How come she gets to…” and later, “Why do all my boyfriends notice her?” Even
later, “Why doesn’t my husband treat me like hers treats her?” or “”Why are her
kids so well-behaved?”
My sister and I are six
years apart so by the time I entered my teens she was married. I felt a deep
loss and for a long time I felt the odd person out. She and my brother’s wife
were closer in age, so they bonded. They always huddled at family events. I felt
the pangs of exclusion like the wimpy little kid slumped on the sideline bench
whose muscles would never fill out his uniform.
Until my husband died
suddenly in the shower getting ready for work. Though five hours away, my sister
dropped her life and rushed to my aid. She boarded her animals at the vets,
packed a bag and drove to my door. I honestly cannot tell you how long she
stayed with me. Certainly until after the funeral five days later. Having lost
her husband a year previously, she guided my numbed mind and aching heart
through the planning, the visitations and the arrangements as I sniveled for
days on in overwhelmed by it all.
When I sold the house and
moved to a one bedroom apartment, all I could afford at the time, she returned.
We spent hours rubbing masking tape onto the floors mapping out where furniture
would go and plotting what I could bring and what I should leave behind for the
estate sale. She then monitored the estate sale like an award winning car
salesman, raking in the bucks so I could afford the moving company.
My brother, an attorney,
drove in to handle all the legal affairs pro bono without blinking an eye. All I
had to do was show up at the courthouse and swear my husband to be deceased—by
far my highest hurdle. Declaring him legally dead before a magistrate made it
real, too real. My brother stood by my side as my knees quaked. His even-toned
professionalism became my boulder. I watched, wide-eyed and tear-blinked as he
handed off paper after paper to the court clerk. Documents all identified by
letters and numbers which I never understood.
Growing up, my brother
seemed a phantom. Eleven years older than me, he was a teenager locked in his
world by the time I could toddle. Then came the college years away. When I was
in third grade, he walked down the aisle. After that, he moved away, had a child
of his own and built a life. Eventually I did the same. For decades we
acknowledged each other like shadows at family gatherings. But that day at the
courthouse, he became flesh and bone to me.
God purposes good from
tragedy. My husband’s passing brought me closer to my siblings and showed me
what family-bound love is all about. Five years later, we are able to
communicate at a deeper level, share our feelings openly, and be there for each
other through this rollercoaster called life. Now, that’s true love— a love akin
to no other on earth.
My Review of Greener Grasses:
Author Cosgrove’s example of Love does not envy in Prism
Book Group’s Love Is... series based on I Corinthians 13:4-8 uses a family
situation. Twin sisters each outwardly and secretively envy the other’s life
choices and circumstances—education, husband, children, lifestyle. They’ve
allowed themselves not only to drift apart, but let the chasm of their
disappointments build until it’s Grand Canyon deep. It takes the death of their
mother and her unusual request in her will to force them to choose whether to
bridge the divide and eventually work at backfill, or remain bitter and at odds.
Told from multiple viewpoints, each side of the story
reveals the misfortunes, both real and assumed, as Erin with her blue collar
life and growing boys and Ellen with her higher-society frets and illusions
face each other at their mother’s funeral. From there, they are forced to spend
a week together with their husbands, who have managed an arm’s length relationship
at best. As they reminisce, secrets come to light, and twists on old dreams and
who got what when, why, and how, show them that envy stagnates the soul and existence.
Even their children receive some life lessons as they spend the week together with
an aunt and uncle in a different locale.
Many good lessons come from this short sweet read. How we
treat others is a sure sign of our faith life; how we respond to tragedy is the
mirror of our souls. Allowing another, even a dear sibling, to share our hearts
and gently point us in a better way is a diamond blessing.
Check out Julie’s contribution to
Prism Book Group’s new Love Is series…
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