I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:19-23)
It sits on the edge of the wind-blown prairie and the Montana sky–an unknown town to most. A strip of slender asphalt bisects the small rows of homes where Highway 3 snakes through the rock and golden grass. A stranger passing through probably wouldn’t bother to wonder about the people living there or notice the two quaint churches pointing their steeples toward heaven. A casual passerby wouldn’t care that the bar–a gathering place for regulars most nights- becomes a family hangout when the basketball team scores a victory. And few will thank the farmer–the one pulling his hat down low on his tanned brow as he gazes across miles of burnished wheat–for getting dirt beneath his nails so that others can enjoy bread on the table.
But to me? Well…Broadview is much more. Broadview–and her people–are a significant part of my story. It is a place of family…of pain…of remembrance–and of promise.
I left home when I was eighteen–certain I could evade memories…redefine myself…become. What I didn’t realize was that God allowed me to have memories–both good and bad–in order that I would also have hope.
Through the eyes of hope I can look back and thank God for his mercies to me.
My family was broken, but the Father gifted me with 200 other people who cared–from the youth pastor and his wife to the school janitor. My English teacher…the basketball coach…my 4-H leader.
My grandfather lay in a hospital–his chest stitched from stem to stern while the fields were ripe for the harvest. A line of red and green combines dotted the landscape–each trolling the field and spitting shaft in the air. The Life Giver sent his workers so that a farmer and his grandchildren would know the feeling of satisfied stomachs in the winter.
My childhood home lay smoldering–a heap of ashes. Yet the Provider gave more than needed when donations from a lone Pancake Breakfast were stacked in front of us.
Broadview.
Insignificant?
Not at all–those 200 people made a difference.