As I mentioned earlier, it would be impossible to list all the kindnesses that were shown to our family during Ken's illness. But one is so precious that it bears mentioning specifically. It happened at Christmas, 2002, two months following Ken's diagnosis. He had had one surgery already, was being tube-fed and was in the midst of the meanest, most horrible chemotherapy imaginable.
Anyway, back to my story. One day, shortly before Christmas, Brad, our associate pastor, called and asked if he could come and bring us something. He showed up a little while later with a small Christmas tree. He said it was from the "little old ladies" Sunday School class at church. The branches were decorated with money. I still get misty-eyed remembering it. We put the tree up in our living room. It stayed there until late January or early February. Each time I thought I would "undecorate" it, I would change my mind because it was so precious a reminder of those sweet ladies.
Finally I decided that I needed to go ahead and take the money off and put the tree away. As I began the task, I was blessed all over again. Each piece of money had been folded into elaborate fans and shapes and tied with little gold and silver ribbons. I was completely overwhelmed at the sense of love and selflessness represented by that little tree. These sweet little ladies, many of them widows on limited incomes, collected money for us. Then, instead of putting it in an envelope or card, they used their arthritic little fingers to fashion lovely little "ornaments" and tie them to our precious Christmas tree. Tears flowed as I untied each ribbon and unfolded each piece of money. I believe there was $92 on that tree. I tucked it back to do something special with it. I still have the gold and silver ribbons in the cedar chest.
No comments:
Post a Comment