Chosen: The Legacy Leighton Has Left Behind

As I sit here with a heavy heart and hope for what's to come, I am reminded of how magnificent of a God we serve. In life we hit road blocks where monumental things happen to us. There are moments that take us by surprise, moments of utter disbelief, moments of unmeasurable joy, and moments where we wish we could stop time in its tracks. This past weekend I lost a friend that meant so much to everyone that she had ever met. Someone who lived a life of pure joy and selflessness. A life that people would look at from the outside and think, "man that girl has something special!" Although her life was cut a lot shorter then we all wanted, her purpose on this earth was complete. While heartache is upon all who knew her and eyes are filled with tears, we hold on to a hope that we serve a God who knows all of us by name and has written the ending to all of our stories here on earth. Many will gather today in Tennessee to celebrate the life of that beautiful, fun, and loving girl. Hearts will cry out and many people will ask the question, why? It's okay to ask those questions. It's okay to question why it happened and mourn over this trying time. But at the end of the day, when Leighton is laid to rest, we can all join together knowing that she is with Christ, high above the clouds, worshipping Him and fully alive in His presence. Her story was written and her story is now complete here. She was chosen to live the life that she did, to impact the lives that she did, and to leave a legacy that people will talk about for years to come. Her life has left us all with a challenge. A challenge to live life to the absolute fullest. A challenge to put others before ourselves. A challenge to make Christ known through our daily walk. I am blessed to have known Leighton Williams. I am thankful for the influence that she made on my life and the handprint that she has left in my heart. 

Tonight, while reading a book I was recently given, I couldn't help but think how thankful I am to be chosen by God. I am the daughter of a God who didn't choose me because he had to, but because He wanted to. He chose me because He loves me so much and wants to see me happy. Times like now it's hard to remember that, but the chapter I read tonight brought new hope into my life. We all know how it feels to be chosen by someone. A friend, that special guy, or a job position that we have wanted for years. It's sometimes hard to process God choosing us because we can't physically see or touch him. But He is there and He has chose US! His love for us is so vast that we can't even comprehend it. Kelly Minter, author of "The Fitting Room," illustrates it beautifully in her book...

"It is only when my view of God is distinctly human and small that I think, well, God is supposed to choose me, right? But when I understand even a fraction of his magnificence and greatness, I have the utter opposite response--one of disbelief and gratitude that the God who governs every atom of the universe acquainted Himself with my unique being, lovingly, and individually picking me with His mighty hands, holding me with the tenderness and awe of a child cupping his first sand dollar. And when I consider Psalm 139 and meditate on the Lord's intimate knowledge of me, I begin to understand that I have not been mindlessly chosen as one soul in an enormous pack, like a rancher purchasing a herd of cattle. Instead, God has chosen me as a beloved individual who has been searched and known. Whose sitting and rising, and coming and going does not escape the roaring, never-slumbering eyes of God. He is familiar with all my ways, the words on my tongue before I speak them. His loving hand has hemmed me in on every side. I cannot rise to heaven or flee to hell or skip across the ocean without His presence attending me. And when I was in my mother's womb, and God was spinning planets and drawing the tide in and out, while he was dressing the fields, and feeding the sparrows, He was somehow, at the same, knitting together my fair skin and hazel eyes with my sensitive heart and melancholy temperament, stitching together threads of genes that science has yet to even identify And while He sits on His throne, ruling and working, He thinks about me with vast and innumerable thoughts. I think this is what it means to be chose. And though we are part of a vast number of saints who have also been chose, it does not in any way diminish the exclusivity of God's individual choosing of me or you." 

I couldn't have put it any more perfect. How can you read that and not have hope! We are chosen. The life we live here is not ours, but it belongs to Christ. He has chosen us for this time to make His name known. He has uniquely molded us into His most beautiful masterpiece. There will be times of immense grief on earth, times like I said above, where we question who God is and what His ultimate plan is. But let's take grasp of the peace and hope He offers us. Let's join together and celebrate the amazing gift He has given us, the gift of being chosen. The gift of being sons and daughters of the most high God! That is my hope tonight and for tomorrow. 

Tonight I am celebrating Leighton and her life. Saddened I can't be at home with friends, my heart is stretched over the ocean that separates us and is there. But tonight I have hope and peace because I know the hope that has come with the life Leighton lived. I have peace because she was chosen by our beautiful King and is living a life of pure joy in the most beautiful place in the universe. She is with our sweet Savior and I can't think of a better place to spend eternity! 

I love you Leighton, see you soon!