Gramma's Things: a Confirmation that God is in Control

This is a story that happened to me in the last week which is confirmation to me that God is in control of all things.

In November of 2012 my mother passed away at the age of 94.  For many years she said that she did not want a funeral or a memorial when she died.  She always said that if people didn't come to visit her when she was alive, she didn't want them to come and see her when she was dead.  She also wanted to be cremated.  So on December 1 which was the day arranged because some of us had to travel a goodly distance,  the immediate family met at her apartment.  This was my brother and his two daughters, my husband and myself, my son and his little family, and my daughter and her two children.   My brother brought  my mother's ashes, and we spent quite a bit of time looking through all her photographs that went back to the late 1930's.  After that all of her expensive jewelry was divided between her grandchildren, as were a goodly sum of silver dollars.  As the day progressed, other of her possessions  went to anyone who wanted them as her apartment was going to be sold and there was a lot of her things that needed to be disposed of.  One item my daughter kept asking about was my mother's little leather purse that seemed to have disappeared.  She kept saying "where is gramma's purse, where is gramma's purse".. My daughter and my mother were very close while my relationship with my daughter has not been good.  As a matter of fact, I have not seen her since this meeting.

Later on, after my daughter had left, my husband found the purse on a hanger with a coat hung over it.  
Time passed, and I did not go back to the apartment again until April. My husband and I were to meet my brother at my mother's apartment and pack things up in preparation for the apartment going up for sale.  We came home with many, many boxes and all of her clothing.   I gave the clothing away to a neighbour who is the same size my mother was, but I kept a cardigan sweater which still smelled of Gramma, and so began the box entitled "Gramma's Things".

I wanted to give my daughter special memories of her Gramma, so I put the sweater at the bottom of a box, put her prayer journal (which was a diary from 1991) on top of that. Next I put the little leather purse she had asked about and inside the little purse  I put two broaches, a gold locket, and a diamond and ruby ring wrapped in paper towel and sealed in a ziploc bag.  I also put some photographs of Gramma in the purse, one of them of her and my daughter taken at my son's wedding in 2000. At the top of the box were crocheted dish cloths that my mother had made in abundance. 

Luke 15: The Father With Two Sons

This study of the Father with two sons is for anyone who is estranged from a beloved child.

The Father With Two Sons

Luke 15:11-32

Many Christians are familiar with the story in Luke 15 of the father with two sons, whose younger son desired his inheritance, and left home to go to a far country where he squandered all his money on worldly things (riotous living V13).  When famine came he was in great want but he came to the end of himself, recognized his sin, repented and returned home.

Let us consider the father. (V11 "A certain man had two sons:"  Certainly he must have been a man of much wealth and substance, for he had servants and riches...yet he possessed that most precious quality, unconditional love for his children. When the youngest son demanded his inheritance V12 "Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me"  the father did not argue or deny but willingly divided his living and gave to both sons.  Perhaps the father knew that this might lead to disaster, but he used great wisdom.  There comes a time when we must let our children go, and trust the Lord to care for them, perhaps chasten them, and bring them back to us again, not necessarily to live with us, but to be in harmony as a family.  The father trusted the Lord to bring his son home again.  Scripture bears no record that the father went after his son at all, but let him go.

God's Faithfulness in Little Things

Jonah 1:17 "Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah...

Jonah 2:10 "And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited Jonah upon the dry land."  (KJV)

I love the story of Jonah for showing our Sovereign God in control of everything.  Because of God's control, I am in the habit of praying for needs that some might find a little strange.  Such was my prayer for today.

For the past 15 years I have been taking care of my son and his family's cats when they are on vacation, going to their home every other day, leaving enough food and water to last, always seems to be more food than necessary.  There have been several cats over the years, and they have two right now, a 6 year old and a 6 month old.   The 6 year old has always been a wild child, wanting to be outside since she was a kitten.  I am sure that she has spent more time out than in.  When they are away she stays in the house where she is not very pleased to be in.  She is always ready to be fed and then cries mournfully, begging to be let out but alas, in she stays until my son and his family are home again.

Yesterday my son, daughter-in-law and grandaughter left for a week away, and this is the first time that the 6 year old cat did not come into the house by the time for them to leave.  The kitten was taken to a kennel to avoid conflict between the two of them home alone together should the older cat come in.

This morning I received two text messages saying that the cat was out, that the neighbour was going to try and bring her in, and could I come this evening to feed if the neighbour was able to catch her.  I said that I would and that if she was not in the house I would leave food and water outside for her.  And then I prayed "Lord, please bring Misty home,  In Jesus name I pray, believing that with you all things shall be possible."