Linda
by any other name
All
my life I have been living next to, or related to, or married to – you guessed
it, Linda. As a fairly popular girls name, the name might be derived from the
same root as the linden tree, from Germanic lind meaning "soft,
tender" ultimately from a Celtic root. The image of the tree is used to
indicate a gentle personality. It may also come from the neo Latin language
(Italian, Spanish or Portuguese) word linda, which is the feminine form of
lindo, meaning "beautiful, pretty, cute" or "cleaned"
(Spanish). Be that as it may, it is a name that has been ever present in my
life since about 1943 – the year I was born.
For
a start, my cousin was Linda. Next came the girl next door – another Linda. We
had a gate between our gardens and we were very close childhood friends but
never anything more. I don’t know why – it just never happened. It was
Linda-next-door who was responsible for me going to church and becoming a
Christian – but that’s another story. These two managed to stay with me for
about 20 years until they were joined by another Linda in the person of my
sister-in-law. You would think this was enough but, just to show that God has a
sense of humour, he took Linda-next-door to Australia. She was followed in
quite short order by cousin Linda who also went to Australia. I was down to
just one Linda – almost derelict in my duties to maintain a certain quorum of
Linda’s in my life.
This
is when I met my wife of nearly 36 years - another Linda of course. In the
course of several jobs and several homes, we nearly always had another Linda
living next door to us and at one time had one either side of us. We went to
visit cousin Linda in Australia. Sadly I had by this time lost contact with
Linda-next-door but cousin Linda had been in Australia for over 30 years and we
were their first ever visitors from back ‘home’ – still are 12 years on. That’s
sad but they have four kids and about 3 million grandkids so I guess they are
happy. We still speak three or four times a year.
Then
my wife of 36 years contracted cancer and died. I was expecting it but it was
still a shock, especially to our boys and new grandson (plus one on the way).
There was a four year gap in my life which could only be filled by one thing.
So the Lord fixed for me to meet – another Linda. Caused problems with the
family but couldn’t help that. This Linda, now my wife, lived in Texas while I
lived in England. God has a great sense of both timing and humour. He brought
us together via the internet – Twitter – and we knew very quickly we were right
for each other.
And
so my Linda deficit was balanced once again. We now live miles away from London
in the Midlands of England. The Lord brought us up here, found us a home and a
wonderful church with many new friends. Best of all there are no other Linda’s
around so I reckon I have found my Linda soul mate and we intend to stay here. Best
of all we can pray and minister together in and for our church.
Life
is great and God is just so good – isn’t He?
No comments:
Post a Comment