I came to really know Melanie Griego during the first combat deployment of my son Adam, her husband. She lived with me during that deployment. We became very close. Mel and I were worlds apart in personality. I tend to be a fairly unemotional woman, and she was a very emotional woman. She loved to dress up, I always preferred jeans and a t-shirt. She liked doing her makeup, I rarely wore makeup. She liked to sing and dance and had a beautiful voice, I rarely danced and have a terrible voice.
Mel felt her emotions to the core of her soul, sometimes they consumed her. If she was happy, it was a joyful happy, like a child going to Disneyland, or like a child on Christmas morning. If she were sad, it was the same intensity, things that might only be a small bump in the road for me, were more like a train wreck for her.
We did many things together, we prayed, we sang, we talked, we argued, we laughed, we cried. God drew us together, and God enabled us, despite our rather drastic differences, to love each other deeply. Mel was the daughter that God never gave me. She had a huge heart, she felt the pain of others, and she deeply cared, especially when people were hurting. I learned a lot from Melanie, and God used her greatly in my life and in my Christian walk. I will forever treasure the time I spent with her. Not all of it was easy, but every bit of it was worth it. I believe I am a better person today, and a better Christian, because of Mel Bell. She gave you the opportunity to walk out what you believed, she challenged you to live what you preached. I am so very grateful.
Our Mel Bell believed in the Christ, she believed in His mercy and grace. She knew that she was a child of God. Through the circumstances she was given in this life, she did her best to honor Him, it was the desire of her heart to live for Him. Like all of us, she faltered from time to time. We all do. But for Mel, it was much more difficult than it is for you and I. Mel faced living with a mental disorder, one that was consuming her. She tried for years to deny it, to overcome it through sheer will power and she was unable to do so. All the beauty she created, all the good things she did for others, all the love she displayed, often for strangers, was done in the midst of this disorder. If she hurt others, during periods of sadness, during the dark nights of the soul, she was always broken by it. She never wanted to hurt anyone.
In regards to her leaving us, Mel knew that what she was doing was wrong, she knew it was not what God would want her to do. She asked many questions before she left that we now know were attempts to seek assurance of God’s forgiveness. She loved Jesus and I know she was a little worried, if what she was going to do would cost her His relationship. Family members have told us that in the days before she left, she spent a lot of time listening to Christian music, and singing to God (she had a beautiful voice), she read her Bible (she loved that Bible, she had carried it since it was given to her, on the day she came to Christ), she had marked various passages in it. She highlighted and left her bookmark on Psalm 23, The Shepherds Psalm.
We have all heard and acted upon certain phrases, phrases such as cast yourself upon the mercy of God, cast yourself upon the grace of God, take a leap of faith, and others similar to these. It is my belief that Melanie acted upon these same precepts.
She clutched a prayer card in her hand and she cast herself upon the grace and mercy of her Lord.
You were not there to catch her……I was not there to catch her…..each of us here, even those of you who did not know her well, wish with all your hearts that you had been there to catch her, all who loved her wanted to give her peace, to encourage her, to set her free, to keep her safe, to have her know that we loved her, and for our love to be enough to save her……..we all wish that we had been there to catch her……but I assure you beloved, with a faith in my heart so strong that nothing can snatch it from me….I assure you…..THERE WAS SOMEONE THERE TO CATCH HER! JESUS WAS THERE TO CATCH HER! SHE IS WITH HIM NOW AND ALL IS WELL!
God’s word tells us:
““There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
“We set our eyes not on what we see but on what we cannot see. What we see will last only a short time, but what we cannot see will last forever.”
In closing, in the days to come, as each of us walk out our lives here on earth, I urge you to submit yourselves to God, walk with Him always, through the good times and the bad, through the dark nights of the soul that each of us experience. Cast your cares upon Him, trust Him, trust in His goodness, in His provision, in His purpose….take a leap of faith…….not as our Mel Bell did, for I do not believe this was God’s best for her, He would have brought beauty and grace to her and to others through her life had she chosen to stay with us and to walk with Him here…..but she was weary, and in His grace, in His mercy and in His Divine Providence he allowed her to come on home. So please, do not do it as Mel did, but instead, walk out your lives in faith and trust in His goodness and mercy, there will be hard times for God has told us that in this life we will have sorrows. Trust Him to see you through them, to the end and help others along the way.
Use all that you have learned from knowing and loving our Mel Bell, in His service. If you place your full faith and confidence in Christ you will see her again.
