Dear Reader:

When I look at this quilt I cherish it now so much. It was my grandmother Wilson’s homemade quilt…the grandmother who kept me on and off during mother’s recovery from bone cancer. But my appreciation and respect for this beautiful legacy  has not always been the case.

When I went off to college mother gave me two or perhaps even three of Grandmother’s quilts and what did I do with them….use them to lie on at Sullivan’s Island while Brooke and I toasted ourselves burnt brown every summer.

This is the only quilt that survived and I am so glad of it….now. Isn’t it strange how it takes time for us to understand history, and living legacies left by loved ones before us. Mother should have waited until I turned 40 to give me these priceless heirlooms.

So when I came across this story….it touched me on many different levels….hope you enjoy it and your day today.

THE QUILT

As I faced my Maker at last judgement, I knelt before the Lord along with the other souls . Before each of us laid our lives, like the squares of a quilt. An angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that is our life.

But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in everyday life. I saw hardships that I endured, which were the largest holes of all.

I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and all the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty like binding air.

Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of the truth …The others rose, each in turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been.

My angel looked upon me, and nodded for me to rise. My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn’t had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life, and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness and death, and false accusations that took from me my world as I knew it.

I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I had spent many lonely nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully: each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgemental gaze of those who unfairly judged me.

And now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it had been…I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with eyes opened wide.

Then I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image, The Face of Christ. Then our Lord stood before me, with love and warmth in his eyes. He said: “Every time you gave over your life to me, it became my life, my hardships, and my struggles. Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let me shine thru, until there was more of me than there was of you.”

– Author Unknown -………

So until tomorrow….Let us see Christ in all our legacies of love.

“Today is my favorite day.”  Winnie the Pooh

Today is the wedding….isn’t there something just special in the air on a wedding day? I thought this photo would be appropriate for such a beautiful setting….a wedding in the mountains.

Do you ever buy something for a special occasion or even for yourself and put it somewhere out of sight, out of mind, and forget all about it? I hate to admit it….but I seem to be doing more of that lately….anyway….I found a couple of items I had bought on sale for this or that grandchild but then at the bottom of the bag was a large strangely shaped object.

When I pulled it out….I was overjoyed! Earlier I had found a driftwood cross in a store and fell in love with it. But before I could hang it….I had to clean up quickly for company one day …so I put it in the grandchildren’s bag and forgot all about it.

Thursday night, when I discovered it….I didn’t wait a second to get a hammer and a nail and put it up on my bedroom wall where I can see it first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. An appropriate photo to end a beautiful wedding day.