Day 6:
I am thankful to have known MADISON TAYLOR KNEBUSCH.
Today would have been her 17th birthday. It's been almost a year since she passed away and there aren't too many days when I don't think about her. She was so amazing and touched so many in the few years she had. I often realize that I haven't done half as much in my 34 years as she did in her 16-and-a-half. It's because of her that I finally gave God a chance again. I had come to find myself in a desperate time in my faith in the few years leading up to last January. It's too much to explain here, but I'll write about it sometime. But when she passed away, I finally began to really see who my God was. He takes the broken and makes it beautiful. He takes the sick and makes them well and whole again...forever. He can be seen and heard and felt most deeply in the moments when the world believes He has turned his back. He used this frail, precious, humble girl to show the world what His love meant where a thousand powerful, loud, strong men have failed.
And she continues to teach and convict me. I watch her mother across the auditorium on Sundays, praising Him with outstretched arms even now when I have refused to do so, mad at God about lesser things. I see her Dad find ways to honor her. I hear about her siblings doing new things that I know she would have loved to see and be a part of, always keeping a part of her near. I see her best friend struggling to find meaning and wholeness in a world that seems to move on and forget.
But we haven't and we won't. Her exceptional smile. Her beautiful spirit. Her warrior's heart. The lessons she taught us. All of these things we wrap up and around the memory of Madison that leaves us missing her, but mostly so incredibly blessed that we were able to share in just a little bit of the goodness that was Madison.
1 comment:
beautiful x
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