My Pot of Gold

By Missey Butler
Guest Writer

CBN.com -- I love St. Patrick’s Day. Every year my family celebrates with the best o’ the best Irishmen and non-Irishmen alike. We never need much of a reason to get together and party, but this time of the year always seems to be particularly festive and fun for us all.

We string the four-leaf clover garland from “corner to corner” in the large family room. With Irish fiddle softly playing in the background, we break out the green punch, the green potato salad, the green cake -- you guessed it -- the green everything!

My brother Brian sings the most beautiful “Oh Danny Boy” you could ever imagine. He comes by it quite naturally; our own beloved mother used to sit at the antique family pump organ and bring us all to tears with her rendition of “When Irish Eyes are Smiling.” I’d even catch my dad looking at her with those same smiling Irish eyes.

Both of my paternal grandparents hail from a small fishing village known as Portedown, Ireland. Arriving by way of Ellis Island in the early 1900s, they were poor immigrants with a simple dream of bettering themselves and their children’s futures. In later years they would speak about their “quiet elation” as they first looked upon “Lady Liberty” in midst of the cold winds while entering the New York harbor.

My grandparents finally settled in a small town known today as Woodlawn, Maryland. My dad tells the story of how his “fither” (Irish pronunciation for father), Pop Bleakley, would sit on the rickety front porch playing his hand-carved flute, while he and his brother Albert would fiercely compete as to who could dance the “Irish jig” better. My dad, more often than not, had to concede to his older brother, who was “blessed” with the more limber knees.

I have to confess, I take great pride in my Irish heritage, but there is another heritage I am excited to boast about, and that is my Heavenly heritage. God’s Word tells us that He has made us joint heirs with Jesus Christ!

If we are born from above…then we are presently seated in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come (Ephesians 1:20-21).

In the book of Psalms it goes on to say, “Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.”

Because I am a child of the King, I can begin to take hold of the many inherited promises that are rightfully mine in Christ:

I am redeemed,
forgiven,
justified,
sanctified,
purified,
holy,
blameless,
accepted,
assured,
confident,
chosen,
sealed,
set free from all condemnation,
and I am free to love and be loved!

This “Irish lass” has seen the other side of the rainbow and found her ‘Pot of Gold’ and His name is Jesus Christ -- the very Maker of the rainbows, the gold, the promises, and the glorious wealth of our heritage!

That’s a very good reason to say, “Top ah the mornin’ to ya!”