06/29/2019
Our dear friend Julie has expressed our Heart with this beautiful reflection...
“What man has built is lost, but what God has built remains.” These are the words Sheri had to say after seeing the devastation of her beautiful little purple shop in Blowing Rock.
Just a day ago, Take Heart was on fire. It didn’t seem possible. But swiftly, an electrical fire in the attic spread through the entire interior of the store. It was sadly consumed in flames.
Today was the day after.
What happened today? Well at first we did a lot of staring at the remains. It was hard to find the words and the tears came easily. It was sobering. So we dug in and did what we could. As we worked, we cried, we sang, we wrote signs, we hugged and we prayed. We hauled out smoky, sopping clothes and black singed jewelry. To think that just yesterday these were beautiful items in a lovely shop, full of the love and uncommon cheer that daily graces Sheri’s shop. I have to say the love was still there. No fire can take that.
Most of all, what I will say, is that we marveled. We marveled at the prayer tree.
Unbelievably, the prayer tree and the prayer garden next door and I do mean RIGHT next door, was left unscathed, untouched. Not one single prayer was lost. Not ONE. What God had built remained.
Started exactly one year ago this month, the prayer tree has become a symbol of Light and Hope in the picturesque town of Blowing Rock. People from all over the state, even the world, have stopped here to offer up prayers of every sort. Prayers for loved ones, prayers for protection, prayers for marriages, new ones and broken ones, prayers for new babies and lost babies, prayers for people who are suffering from cancer and every kind of illness. The list goes on and on. The requests now COVER the tree. It is quite full but the prayer requests keep coming. There will always be room for more. We marveled.
We marveled at the beautiful picture of HOPE that it remained standing, strikingly green and full of life compared to her charred neighbor. It is still covered in the 13,000 prayer requests that have been placed on it over the course of this year.
Sheri once told me something I thought was so profound about why she thought the prayer tree and garden were so flourishing; “This is what happens when you give the heart a place.”
Apparently so.
So tonight, even though I find myself smelling like smoke, a stench that is truly permeating, tomorrow I will go back. I don’t know what’s in store but I have to be there with my friend Sheri and her wise and sweet manager, Sarah. Take Heart is personal. It’s personal to so very many. It is so much more than a store, just as the prayer tree is so much more than a tree.
It’s time to rebuild, time to restore, so Take Heart can continue to bring what only that little purple shop can - the love, the light and the grace of Christ. Let’s make that purple shop glow within once again.
Julie McGrath
