My husband and I served at 25 Inheritance of Hope Legacy Retreats® between November 2011 and March 2019. At each retreat, I had the honor of hearing Inheritance of Hope Co-Founder Kristen Milligan’s powerful testimony. It was always incredibly moving, bringing tears to my eyes every time. (If you’ve never watched Kristen’s testimony, please stop reading here and watch it. Grab your tissues.)
My husband and I put volunteering on hold as we welcomed our first baby into the world
in August 2019. Then I lost my dad suddenly in 2020, and we had our second child in
September 2022. In February 2025, I felt the Lord calling me back to serving with Inheritance
of Hope again.
However, before I jumped back in, I wanted to watch Kristen’s testimony again, to
remind me of the reason I’m serving and be reinspired by her story and her legacy. This
time, I related to her in a new way–as a mother of small children and as a fatherless
child. Needless to say, the tears streamed anew.
Kristen’s testimony is powerful because she still has hope in the presence of her suffering, a message that is repeated and promised throughout the Bible:
I am not sure where you are in your walk with the Lord. You may be a very strong believer or you may be completely turned off to the gospel, but my prayer is that God has been softening your heart toward Him and that whether you have this hope or not, that you feel like God’s favorite child as you experience His love today. God wants to give you hope despite your current circumstances. He knows your pain and suffering and He wants you to come to Him with all your hurt, anger, bitterness, and sorrow. He loves you so much!
“Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience
various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces
endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and
complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4 (CSB)
“Weeping may stay overnight, but there is joy in the morning.” Psalms 30:5
“Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test
you, as if something unusual were happening to you. Instead, rejoice as you
share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when
his glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4:12-13
For more check out: 1 Peter 1:6-7, John 16:33, 1 Peter 5:10, and Romans 8:18.
Scripture is clear that trials and suffering will come our way, but it also promises us glory, which gives us great reason to hope. This brings us joy.
Kristen’s testimony also brought me back to a time I served at a Legacy Retreat® in New
York City. I was working with the “tween” age group and we had our first session
together. We were seated at several round tables in a long, narrow, windowless room. At each table sat 2-3 volunteers and 4-5 children facing the loss of a parent. The group facilitator laid out an assortment of candy in the center of the tables
and asked everyone to choose a candy that represented how they were feeling. Now, it’s important to keep in mind, it was November, so we had some Christmas-themed candy in the mix.
A young girl at my table held up a Hershey’s dark chocolate—the small, rectangular ones that look like they are wrapped as a little present. She said, “I picked this one because this [the retreat] is a gift, like the outside of this chocolate, but the reason we are here is dark.” The other kids at our table continued sharing the feelings that went with their candy
choices, but I was stuck in a total out-of-body experience, pondering the young girl’s extraordinarily simple and profound statement.
Kristen’s testimony and this young girl remind me of a theme throughout the Bible, and that’s the reference to darkness and light, both literally and figuratively. Young families facing the loss of a parent due to a terminal illness is dark. Getting to serve as the hands and feet of Jesus as an Inheritance of Hope volunteer is an amazing opportunity to be a source of light.
As I looked through the Bible at numerous verses about darkness and light, a few stood
out to me. I was first drawn to Genesis, where light began.
Before there was ever light, God’s Word says, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths…” (Genesis 1:2-5)
What?! Darkness came first?! We will have trials, we will face hard things, life will be dark because that’s how it started! But Genesis goes on to say, “…and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ There was an evening, and there was a morning: one day.”
Darkness came before light, and not only that, but Genesis emphasizes that BOTH darkness and light (together) make one day. It’s much like the scriptural references to
joy and trials– they always seem to go together. Think about it, can we experience joy if
we haven’t experienced trials and struggles? Just like we couldn’t really have light without darkness. Stop and think about this! How would we be able to see the light if there wasn’t darkness? And here’s the even cooler part! Scripture says, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5). You cannot overcome light with darkness! No amount of darkness can affect the light we see. The light can only be increased or
decreased!
Inheritance of Hope volunteers get the opportunity to be the light for families facing a
world of darkness. John goes on to say, “There was a man sent from God whose name
was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe
through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. The true light
that gives light to everyone was coming into the world” (John 1:6-9). There is no better
verse to describe the mission of Inheritance of Hope volunteers. We get to be the light
because we know the “true light.”
John also says, “Jesus spoke to them again: ‘I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life’” (John 8:12).
This is our prayer, but our ultimate hope as volunteers: “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16). Amen.
Lara Milligan is an Inheritance of Hope volunteer. She originally shared this devotional with the Orlando Legacy Retreat® team in March 2025.
