For February 7th:

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like the little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Matthew 18:3 (NIV)

Years ago, a brain hemorrhage reduced my strong and very independent father to a childlike semblance of himself.

My constant prayer became, “Please God, don’t take him until he has received Jesus.” I flooded our home with the old gospel hymns he had grown up with. In the wee hours of many mornings I read scriptures to him. But how could I know he understood?

A week before his stroke, Dad showed my daughter how to cut the intricate angles for a quilt pattern. After the stroke, she often brought the quilt to show its progress. He would smile until he saw the ragged threads on the underside and then he would frown. The quilt was finished two weeks before he died. He could not stop smiling as he rubbed the top and the finished underside.

At the funeral, I listened to the pastor’s words. But I still questioned, “Lord is my father with you?”

The pastor hadn’t known my father and he didn’t know our story. But he talked of our earthly lives being like the tangled web of colored threads on the unfinished underside of a quilt. When it is complete, wee see the Master’s plan in His intricate design of our lives. My tears rolled. God had found a way to comfort a grieving daughter, “Your father is with me” was His message.

We’d thought the stroke was devastating. God knew it was a way to give Dad a second chance.

Prayer: Thank you Heavenly Father for the never-ending love and compassion that you have for your children.

Jeanette Walker