Set Apart Child of God

Galatians 1:15(NIV)

But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased

I've been thinking about a precious sister who is celebrating a milestone birthday today.  She came right in the middle of my group of siblings, never the oldest and only a brief reign as the youngest.  We girls were assigned to two bedrooms in the big Victorian house of our childhood.   One bedroom, very large, always held three and the small bedroom held two.   We would take turns with the small bedroom, sometimes the two oldest girls would take it over and other times the two youngest.   My middle sister never moved, always assigned to the large room.   Was that strange never changing your bed but often your identity, sometimes old and other times young?  What was that like fixed in place while the others orbited around you?  Were you the proud center of your universe or afraid of being downsized like Pluto to minor planet status?   It's no wonder you fell out of orbit at times blazing like a shooting star.   Still God was pleased, with His wild child, set apart from birth and called by HIs grace.

It may be my favorite memory of this sister, the day we got the hand-me-down prom dresses from our beautiful, older cousin.   We were being raised in a strict denomination that taught dancing was wrong. Still the dresses got pulled out of their box and tried on, by the older girls.   Right now I can't remember who the older girls were, save for this sister.   It may have been friends as well as siblings.   I do remember, however, girls twirling around that big bedroom in those frothy, glorious dresses, even if bodices did have to be stuffed with rolled socks, even if the dresses would never be worn outside of that room.  And I do remember how lovely this sister was as she enjoyed the dance, and I have to smile.

Dancing - Joanne Hogg