Our lives would touch in February of this year.
While I was witnessing for Christ on the Gulf national seashore, I observed a mother and a daughter enjoying time on the beach together. They were a picture of a loving mother daughter relationship. I witnessed the close bond that they had together. There was such harmony and joy between them. She had a large hat on and was sitting on the sand while her daughter was running around on her tippy toes enjoying the sun, sand, and surf.
When they packed up for the day and approached their vehicle, I went over to greet them. I asked the mother if she had Jesus as her Savior and she replied, “Yes, I am a Christian.” I told her, “Then you have all you will ever need.” I did not know at the time how great her need would be in such a very short time in the future. Her comment that she was a Christian brings me great comfort.
I offered her little girl a gift and I believe it was a little purse with a doll and a ring and some M&Ms inside. She said, “That was nice of you.” I asked where the father was and she told me that she had to leave the relationship because he was very abusive. I told her she did not have to put up with that and she said, “No, I don’t.” Well she does not.
I told her that her daughter was adorable and she said, “Thank you” with pride written all over her face. She told me her name and I said, “Like sailor of the sea.” She responded, “Yes, but it is spelled Saylor.” In my years of witnessing I meet and greet many people but it would be that name that would help me to remember our encounter last month, just about 30 days before Cassie Carli’s disappearance.
Only God knows the full reason why we met that day. I feel devastated for her friends and her family and her little Saylor. I will not stop praying for God‘s comfort to be ever present in their lives, for justice to be served, and for precious Saylor to have an awesome life.
I am 67 years old. I look forward to witnessing this mother-daughter relationship one more time and that is when the Christian Saylor one day enters into her heavenly home and back into the arms of her mother Cassie. No devil in hell will be able to separate them ever again. He does come to steal, kill, and destroy but he doesn’t have authority in God’s kingdom.
Grief is a very natural process. There is a book I want to recommend especially to the family and her close friends and it is called
Good Grief by Granger E. Westberg. It will help you to understand the stages of grief you will go through.
From everything that has been shared about Cassie she lived her life with great joy and optimism. What I want to say to her circle is don’t allow the sense of your grief to turn into the theft of your joy. Let Cassie’s seeds of joy continue to live through you.
Elizabeth