February 6 - Three Gifts from Outside

1)  Family portraits out on the porch... 

oh what a gift it was that a friend

offered her photography skill.

And we did not know what the future would hold.

It was the season of life just before our second-born

moved south for opportunity's sake.

What a tough decision that was.

2) Then, much later, another season came...

 we enjoyed grandma living with us 

... a year and a half, to be exact.

It was wonderful.

Porch seasons where breezes 

brush up against cheeks.

Wonderfully refreshing.

Now a new season,

and she is in a nursing home...

I don't like her being away, 

outside our home.

Not at all.

3) Then an especially difficult season came around.

(No one knows what the future holds.)

That second-born stepped outside

the realm of this ol' world...

and we learn that...

 "Sometimes God allows what He hates (death),
in order to accomplish what He loves (new life)."
Judy Jeffery

It's true, when you have someone in heaven,

you carry a little piece of it around with you.

You literally feel closer to God.

And you long even more for that "outside world" yourself.

Of course you do.

This just so happened to be one of our boys' favorite books.

Lovely memory of years gone by.

I still have that book.