everyday jesus: seeing him in a gift

Hi y’all, It’s time for everyday jesus: seeing him in the dailyness of life. #everydayjesus. I confess. I was scrambling to find an everyday jesus story for this week. I’m sure I just didn’t have my eyes and ears tuned to His frequency, but until Sunday afternoon, I had nothing. Nada!  Then Jesus showed up in a big way. So, here’s my everyday jesus story:     I don’t know any other way to say it. Some days are just hard. If you have lost a loved one recently, you know what I mean. The waves of grief wash over you suddenly, and all you can do is have a good cry. It happened to me yesterday. I had been over to my parents’ home, and was walking back to my house when it happened. Almost before I knew what was happening, I was crying. I miss my Mother and Daddy. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not grieving inappropriately. I am quite functional 99.5% of the time. It is that 0.5% when grief decides to wash over you that finds me dissolved in tears. I know this lessens over time. I’ve walked this road before, ten years ago when my Daddy died. It is just all part of the grief process. Grief is not really what I am writing about today, however, it is related to my topic. Once I stopped crying and walked back to my house yesterday, I remembered a gift bag that a dear lady from church, who was a friend of my Mother, had brought for me. She also brought one for my sister, Leslie. I sat down at my dining room table to see what was in it. The first thing I looked at was a handwritten note telling me that she hoped I liked what was in the bag, but she also hoped that it did not make me sad. Oh, boy! I hesitated to open it given the state I had just been in. But, I continued. The next thing I saw was a box with puzzle pieces drawn all over it, indicating a puzzle was contained in the box. I love puzzles, so I was drawn immediately to it. I spread out all the pieces and began working.                   Soon, I realized what the picture on the puzzle was. Delight!! What a wonderful gift! What a blessing to be reminded of my precious family in that moment. The puzzle is made from this picture, the last family picture we had taken with my Mother in 2013:   As I looked further into the bag, I found two decorated, laminated pages. Each contained words about mothers and family. Both were such blessings to my heart. Although Miss Johnnie had no idea when she gave me the gift that it would speak so greatly to the need of my heart, Jesus did. He knew that I would need to be reminded of my Mother, and her love for her family. Jesus knew that today, the day I received the gift, would be a day when I would need an extra touch from Him through the gift of a dear, sweet lady. Thank you, Miss Johnnie. Thank you, Jesus.   That’s my everyday jesus story. What’s your story? I’d love to hear it. Email it to me at [email protected], or leave it in the comments below.