Lillies in the Fall

A couple of weeks ago my boss received some grim news regarding the woman who started our local food pantry. We will call her Robbie in this story. She was given two weeks to two months to live and has been fighting leukemia for almost two years.

Robbie started the food pantry with her husband and funded the operations almost single-handedly including purchasing a building to house all of the food. Over the years the food pantry has helped a lot of local families and is well respected in our community.

Robbie said God had spoken to her about some of the people receiving food that didn't need it, but took it greedily. She wanted to call them out and not let them have the food, but the Lord said, if you turn anyone away, I will hold you accountable. If you freely give, then I will hold them accountable for wrongly taking the food. Robbie said she never turned anyone away after that and has shared that story many times with my residents at the correctional facility.

Even though I have never met her, Robbie has made quite a mark on my heart. She has had a great relationship with us as a community service site. Our residents are always impressed at how those people are so giving. The food pantry is definitely a favorite site for my guys.

Well, after the horrible news, my boss went to the floor and asked one of our residents if she could take a picture he drew and give it to Robbie as a gift for her lasting relationship with us and contribution to our community. The resident was very excited because he had been to the food pantry. The picture was a remake of "Forgiven". You know, where Jesus is holding up the guy who is holding a hammer and a nail. The picture also has easter lillies in the bottom corners and was drawn by Thomas Blackshear II.

I took the picture and had it matted and framed and we presented the picture to the current operator of the food pantry, Ally. Ally is good friends with Robbie and as soon as she saw it started to weep and looked as though she would pass out. We asked if she was okay and she said, "It is amazing. You don't know how much Robbie is gonna like this picture." "The lillies in the bottom of the picture are so significant." We asked why and she stated, "Robbie's husband passed away on Easter of last year. We had Easter lillies from his funeral and planted them beside the food pantry in a victory garden dedicated to Robbie and her husband. The lillies bloomed in the spring and then died as normal lillies do. This fall the lillies are now blooming at a time when Robbie was given only a short time to live."

My resident started to cry and was overwhelmed. He said he was so compelled to draw that piece of art because he heard God saying, "draw it, draw it, now!" He didn't know why. He just did it and used it as a poster for a transition ceremony at our facility. The residents transitioning had signed it and almost messed up the drawing. When I took it to get matted, the clerk helped me get a matte design that would cover the signatures, but not the art work. I had suggested an oval which would have covered the lillies in the picture. The clerk suggested another design and it did the job. The drawing was preserved and the lillies could be seen.

The residents also said he had to draw more lillies because there weren't enough in the picture. Ally told Robbie that the lillies were a sign for her to go home with her husband.

Ally presented Robbie with the picture. Robbie sobbed and sobbed. She was so happy and touched at the work our residents did. She asked Ally to hang the picture in the food pantry after she passes away. Ally promised her it would hang for everyone to see.