We are a Blessed People cont.

There are many others that complete this story that you will meet, but not yet. Their stories are interwoven with ours, like a huge patchwork quilt. Each has a very important square and I am trying to stitch them all together. When it is finished it will be a thing of great beauty. Each square in the quilt is different. Some make you laugh, some make you cry, some are just squares that connect the others. I am the quilter (with much help from my friends) trying to stitch together the squares and make some sense of it all. Seeing what kind of creation comes from all the different squares and yet that is the beauty. It won't be perfect, it may have mistakes, its may not match in some places. It will be as it is when finished. But one thing for certain..it will be a masterpiece, a thing of great beauty, because it will be made as our lives are made. And this story is about those lives and so it is a masterpiece. Because these normal lives woven together make up the most magically beautiful creation ever made.

There are so many things that we just can't figure - so I guess they'll just go unfigured. We tried so hard to raise our children to be responsible good human beings, we disciplined and worried and watched over, trying to make sure they were in the right places, doing school work, etc. Taking them to church which is such a big part of our lives. My children played a game "the movie of our life" where they try and cast a speaker in church or in the neighborhood with a movie star that best fits their looks and personality. Jim and I sit very properly listening to the speaker while the children cast different folks as Meryl Streep or Tom Hanks. Jim has been cast as a smaller Tom Selleck and I always want to be Sally Field (even though I really never get involved in their silly game). I am sure they hear every word spoken from the pulpit and learn much from it. I hope I play the part of Sally Field as well as Sally was in the movie Forrest Gump, because she gave such great advice and was so calm and kind.

Then there was the time that my friend Carol (Carol has six kids, five girls and one boy) was parked at a craft store. Her children are very small in size, but normal in age. She left the twelve year old in charge of the the others while she ran in for just a minute. One of the smaller children put the car in drive and drove throught the window of the store. Of course Carol was horrified. The police came and were sighting her for neglect. She put her hands out and said "take me, maybe I can get a night's peace in jail" but again our neighbors pulled together, signed petitions and told the police that Carol was a wonderful parent and spared her her night in jail. she never forgave us. Carol and her group are a huge square in our quilt. A few years later her sweet husband Rick got cancer. Those delinquent children of theirs sat with him, bathed him, fed him, sang and told stories to him. They wouldn't leave his side. Carol herself said she was honored, because she felt she had been given the opportunity to care for an angel. I watched as sweet neighbors planted flowers for Carol in her yard that summer. She didn't ask, people just showed up and bought and planted flowers for her, meals were brought in, people cared. On Memorial Day the word got out that Rick was not going to last more than a few hours. We hurried down to visit and tell Rick we loved him. The next morning he woke up and said "now what am I going to do? We put on such a good show and now I'm still here"! Rick died about a month later with family and friends around him. Those kids who drove through the craft store window were there caring and supportive of their mom. How sad and yet what a perfect moment out of time to share with people we have lived with and loved. This family has a beautiful square in the quilt, full of love, finely stitched, perfect in every way. (To be realistic, maybe a stitch or two is a little crooked, but they wouldn't be real if it was totally perfect). Carol has spent time laying on my living room couch just chatting about every day stuff, but always leaves me with some perfect piece of wisdom that makes me think all day about putting things in perspective. She is wise. I teach her youngest and only son in Sunday School. He's a character, but at twelve, having lost his dad, he is also very wise. Rick and Carol should be proud of what they created.