Dear Reader:

For awhile now I have been wanting to add some statues to my garden…nothing huge or ultra expensive…yet something that will last and bring me serenity looking at it…I want an angel statue.

The little angel, from my garden, in the title photo is one of the oldest statues in it… I, also, had another little angel that sat on a fence post…but during a storm she fell and lost her wings…they were shattered.

I need an everyday angel who has come to earth to just be there for anyone walking through the garden who needs her.

It reminds me of a  story I recently read…..

“On the Ground”

Vince Amlin

The other day a colleague was walking by our building and saw me at the back of the sanctuary. He ducked his head in to say hi and commented on the beauty of the place.

I never know what to say when people compliment this space that I had no hand in creating and which is familiar enough now that I hardly notice it.

“Yeah,” I offered and let him take it in.

After a few minutes, he motioned to a spot at the front of the sanctuary. “What are those two carvings?”

I told him they were angels holding song books.

“That’s interesting,” he said. “Usually you see angels up high in a church. But yours are down on the ground. Do they have bodies?”

“I think they’re just torsos,” I told him, “heads, wings, and arms.”

Before he left, he offered a prayer. It began “God, we thank you that your messengers are on the ground. The messengers are on the ground…”

When he had gone, I took a closer look at the angels – two figures that I see often enough to completely ignore them. I studied them with renewed interest. I had been wrong.

They had bodies: robes that reached to the floor and maybe even the suggestion of toes peeking out underneath. Like they could have just been walking by, and ducked their heads in, and decided to stay.

Like they could just step down at any minute and join the stream of neighbors passing by all day. Could be any one of them at all.

Prayer
God, we thank you that your messengers are on the ground.

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

How many of us have told a friend or stranger…“Thank you for helping me…you were such an angel to take time to do so.” Can’t we all relate closer to these angels inside mortals than the heavenly angels from above?

So until tomorrow….

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. – Hebrews 13:2 (NRSV)

May the angels of every kind (on heaven and earth) be with us and our loved ones this Thanksgiving to protect us from harm that we can see and harm we can not see…May we, also, use this time to be an angel to someone else who needs it!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*This picture (below) that I found on-line of the lodge we are staying in… has been imprinted on my mind…but I will have to wait until I wake up tomorrow… Thanksgiving morning to see it….

Tommy and Kaitlyn were planning on us getting an early start today to head up to the mountains but business and builders had other plans…wanting to close on properties before the holidays….so we will actually be arriving in the dark….HOWEVER that will just make tomorrow… Thanksgiving morning more exciting…waking up to a little piece of heaven! 🙂

WE ARE COMING! The lodge at Lake Toxaway!

***Hopefully today will be wonderful too for the Turner family…if Tigger can get home for Thanksgiving…praying John and Mandy get the call to come pick him up today…it will take a week before all the test results are back in…but if he is eating and has more energy and strength he will be better off at home…over the holidays…love is always the best medicine.

*** Latest update today Wednesday November 25: Sad news…things went downhill last night and John and Mandy have left to tell Tigger good-bye. I know they would appreciate prayers today for the whole family…

***I love you my oldest grandson doggie…may the angels carry you to heaven to be with your Creator. Tell Poogie hey.

When I return next week…I will write a special memory tribute to Tigger. 

“Big Red” looks like he is waving good-bye as I am stacking luggage on the porch to be ready for pick-up… as well as the coleus protecting little clone “big red.” So much beauty left behind in the low country too.

Susan’s granddaughter Ady is helping her decorate for Christmas as part of her birthday present today….way to go Ady! Great birthday elf!

Something must be happening with all our granddaughter elves…as Eva Cate shared the same idea and  took charge of decorating their family Christmas tree this year…with number 1 dog-Tigger ornament on the top of the tree waiting for him to come home.

*Save some of that decorating time for Boo when I get home! 🙂