Faith of a Child

 

 

 

A hand so misshapen
From the ravages of age
Fingers grown stiff
And at times splayed

 

Knuckles swollen
Movement almost nil
These once busy fingers
Are now quite still

 

Sewing things laid aside
To sew causes such hurt
I cannot mend and create
These fingers will not work

 

A fair-haired little girl
One day took my hand
Told me what I needed
Stating my Jesus can

 

He made it the first time
He can make it again
Bowed her head and prayed
Then a warmth began

 

All through the fingers
Into the hand
The look in her eyes
Said yes, my Jesus can

 

The stiffness lessened
Agility slowly returned
The words of the little girl
In my heart did burn

 

Jesus made it the first time
He can make it again
Her faith moved mountains
Where had my faith been

 

©Gayle Davis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  WATCH ME

 

 

Watch me as I stitch the cloth
Each patch a gift I give
Cradles you with all the warmth
For all the life you live

 

Each thread of life is special
The stitches strong will last
The love within my heart
Will share a sacred past

 

Watch me as I do this
So you can learn one day
To gather cloths of beauty
With memories to stay

 

Each story it will tell you
The softness you will feel
Every time you pick it up
Love's gentleness revealed

 

Then when I'm no longer here
Remember every stitch
Gathering the special times
Our love was so enriched

 

The pattern that I'm making
Love gathered so divine
Folded in your hope chest
My treasured love combined

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

Grandma's Thimble
 
 
I marvel at the way God knows when to send a
special gift of encouragement our way at just
the right time! It might be in a dream, a lost
letter, a memory, something found that we'd
forgotten about, or something in His Word,
during a devotional that really speaks to us.

 

My grandmother was from a town in the thumb
area of Michigan. And summer after summer I
enjoyed staying with my grandparents as a young
child, I was from the City and loved the small
town they lived in. People knew everyone, their
kids, their pets, their ancestors. The bond with
them continued to grow as I grew and they got older.

 

Grandma was always using her hands for something
exciting...she would make little sandwiches and
we'd have tea parties, plant flowers and carefully
tend them. She'd knit afghans for her grandchildren
as well as making beautiful quilts for each one.
I remember the small thimble she would use while
doing her needle work. Placing her thimble on her
finger she'd remark....
I wouldn't want to sew without one.

 

A few years ago when Grandma left this earth for
her new residence in Heaven, I bid farewell to a
loving Grandmother... How quickly our lives can
change. We had just had tea together a couple of
months earlier, on her 91st birthday. I missed her
very much, but I noticed it mostly on my birthdays,
because there was no card from Grandma.
She'd never forgotten my birthday!

 

On one particular birthday when I was feeling a
little low and a lot older. Something happened to
make me feel like she was sharing that special day
with me.

 

I was arranging some colorful pillows that she had
made, and suddenly I felt something inside one pillow,
it was small and hard. I moved the object to a seam
that I carefully opened, and to my delight out came
a tiny silver thimble!

 

How happy I was to find something that had been a
part of her. Not realizing it had fallen off her
finger, I pictured her sewing it in that little pillow
that I just happened to fluff, to place on my
bedspread that day. I carefully laid the thimble along
side the others I've collected over the years, where I
could continue to see the gift God chose to reveal to me.

 

What a precious memory of a very special lady who
somehow, I knew, was laughing in delight at sewing her
thimble inside my pillow. I heated the tea kettle and
made some tea, using my best china, as Grandma always
did, and enjoyed my tea and Grandma's thimble.

 

What a wonderful birthday that was!
 

 

Diane Dean White,

 

 

 

 

 

                

 

 

 

 Beauty Tips

 

 

 

 

 

A dear old lady was asked what she used
to make her complexion so beautiful and
her whole being so bright and attractive.

 

She answered:

 

"I use for my lips, truth

 

I use for my voice, kindness

 

I use for my ears, compassion

 

I use for my hands, charity

 

I use for my figure, uprightness

 

I use for my heart, love

 

I use for any who do not like me, prayer."
 

 

 Author Unknown