There is a
time for everything,
and a season
for every activity under the heavens:
. . . a time
to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to
tear and a time to mend,
a time to be
silent and a time to speak. . .
(--from Ecclesiastes 3)
I received an email from a friend whose husband Ron was
gravely ill. In it Bette shared a tale of God’s mysterious ways.
Following Ron’s diagnosis of ALS, the congregational care
minister from Bette's church took a prayer shawl to Bette as a reminder of both
God’s love and the love of the congregation. When it was handed to her, Bette
stared at the shawl in disbelief.
It seems that 55 years ago Bette had started to knit a
sweater. It was finished except for one arm from the elbow down. Life had intervened
and Bette put the project away, hoping to finish it someday.
Over half a century later, when she and her husband were
preparing to move, she gave the unfinished sweater to her church’s Quilt-Knit-Crochet
group so they could use the yarn to make a shawl for the church’s prayer shawl
ministry.
As Gail, the congregational care minister from Bette’s
church prepared to visit with Bette, she went to the closet where the prayer
shawls are stored and picked out one. Unbeknownst to Gail, it was the shawl
made from the yarn of Bette’s unfinished sweater.
“I know now why I never completed it,” Bette wrote. “It
wasn’t meant to be a sweater; it was to be my prayer shawl. Throughout Ron’s
illness, God has been so amazing, providing just what we need, just when we need
it—even yarn, bought in 1959, for a prayer shawl we would need in 2014.”
Yes, Bette, God IS amazing! His timing and provision never
cease to fill me with awe; His thoughtful expressions of love continue to astound
me.
“Because Your
loving kindness is better than life,
my lips
shall praise You.”
Ps 63:3
Blessings!
Pam©2016 Pamela D. Williams
