Memories, lace and Mother

I never plan to write about certain things, they just pop into my mind and when they linger there, I figure it is God`s way of telling me to put it down on paper, Not for the whole world to see, but for me mostly, for me to actually see what is going on and to be thankful for how He uses "things" to teach me lessons. Still after almost two years, He is sending me treasures, lessons and treasures from Him, but reminding me of Mother and all that she was to me. I know she meant a lot to many people and had tons of friends, but today, it is just selfishly about me. Do you ever have those days? You just need time to yourself, for yourself, and be there for a bit by yourself? It refreshes my soul to have that space. I wouldn`t want it all the time, but He is good like that to shower it down when needed. It started yesterday, as I was in my laundry room getting the detergent off of the shelf and I glanced at a shoebox up on the next shelf. It was a shoebox that had been there for almost two years. I brought it home from Mother`s house as I was going through her things. It was filled with ceramic angels that she had made. She went through a ceramic stage, when she went to classes for years, and made everything for everyone. At the time, we all had many gifts that were ceramics from her, but none so cherished as they are now with her gone. This particular shoe box had these sweet angels, highlighted in gold, all wrapped in tissue paper, each one, and laid in its place. I had looked into the box when I found it at her house and brought it home where it sat on my shelf. I had not picked them up to study them until now... As I unwrapped each one and lay them all out to look at, I picked up some of the tissue paper and held it close.... it still smelled like her...

I was busy thinking what to do with these angels, and it brought other boxes to my mind in the basement. You see, I have her things all over the house, but a few boxes downstairs were just over flow from one day when I brought more things home and they stayed down there. Well, as I opened them up, and started to go through a few things, I was overwhelmed at what I found. I had looked through boxes last Christmas, and found enough things to frame and give to each girl family member, of Mother`s handi work. I hadn`t looked further after I found enough gifts to use but today, I took each book out, brought each item out and looked through each page as well as each item in the box.

You would have had to have known Mother to understand the beauty of the boxes. She never threw anything away. She had tons of patterns and books of things she had made, but kept them all with any left over supplies, in case she wanted to do them again. This is where it gets good, as I was finding a thing or two and praying for some treasures from her to be in there, I opened one of the instruction books and many of these hand made crosses and designs fell out. She even a few Christmas snowmen she had started that I hadn`t seen before.......

Notice the pin, still in the top of the fabric! Then I found these Christmas pins, that she had in there for some reason.... I think I will be wearing one this year. I am old enough to wear a Christmas pin like the little old ladies wear to church, right?!! I wouldn`t have thought that before, but now, I love them just because they were hers....

Thank you God for these little treasures!!! Again, overwhelmed with mixed feelings.. He knew that when those things were packed up years ago, that I would be finding them, and how I would feel.... Here at Thanksgiving and getting into the Christmas season, He knew how much we all would be missing her, how much my heart still misses her... But, these projects that she had done, so many hours of work, some finished and some still with the needle put carefully on the cloth, were like treasures to me today, cause they were a part of her, of who she was. I don`t know what I will do with them yet, but it will be something very special to be able to save them, remembering the time she took to make them. I heard this week that when asked what their favorite translation to the Bible was, someone said, "My Mother`s translation".... "It was easy to understand because she lived it out each day" Wow... that really hit home to me... That is exactly what she was... Our very own Bible translation, as she lived it out each day. No wonder she is missed so... our teacher is gone... but her example and teachings live on.... I love the verse, Isaiah 45:3 "I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. about hidden treasures God has for us" Today, I am thankful for those treasures, and yes, the hope and knowledge that we have that He is our Lord, God of Isreal and He knows us by name. Happy Thanksgiving week to you all! Love,