We spent the afternoon at Donnie's parents' home. It was the house where he grew up, where he took me as his bride, where his mother passed on to her eternal life in Heaven. When his dad remarried, they moved into his new wife's home and tried to consolidate their belongings. Many of "his" possessions remained at the farm.

Now the house is to be torn down to make way for a new home for one of the grandsons and his family, including the little one who is Afton's namesake. They will build a new home where new children will grow up, marry, and eventually join their grandmother in Heaven.

Such is life.

I think of that old hymn, "This world is not my home. I'm just passing through..."

It's truer than I realized when I was young and my children were younger. I was just beginning the journey and had little time for imagining its end. But sorting through my mother-in-law's life, her photos and keepsakes, her dishes and household items, reminds me that I, too, am destined to pass on through, and that all these things around me that seem to have so much importance will be little more than something for my girls to have to sort through.

For those who place their stock and store in things, I guess that's a pretty grim picture. Luckily, my mother-in-law wasn't that kind of person. Her true legacy is the faith I see in her son's life, the way he treats me because his mother taught him how to treat a woman with love and respect. Her legacy is the example she set for her daughters and granddaughters and one renegade daughter-in-law of grace and beauty and faith. There was always room at their table. There was always laughter, even in the difficult times. And for me, who came to them down a shameful, difficult road, there was immediate acceptance without judgment and true and unmitigated love. It was like cold spring water in the middle of a desert.

I'll miss the old house, but to tell you the truth it's not the same anymore. Dad's new home is with a good and godly woman who makes him happy. A new family has been born of two old ones. It's not the same, but it's good in the way God makes things good for those who love and serve Him.

As for me, I hope that my daughters, their husbands and children think  of me like we think of Donnie's mom. I want them to cling to what I taught them. I hope the life I live is setting the example of a godly woman. I hope they remember my life with smiles and laughter and cling to that, not an item of jewelry or a piece of furniture because in the end, that will only be something for their children to sort through. A legacy of faith is another story. It never gets old or goes out of style. It's the heirloom with eternal value.