Wait three days

This beautiful story first appeared in Guideposts in 1956.

On that beautiful Easter Monday morning I noticed the old flower lady sitting in her usual place inside a small archway. At her feet corsages and boutonnieres were parading on top of a spread-open newspaper. The flower lady was smiling, her wrinkled old face alive with some inner joy, and on impulse I said to her, "my, you look happy this morning!"
"Why not?" she answered. "Everything is good."
She was dressed so shabbily and seemed so very old that I couldn't help saying, "Don't you have any troubles?"
"You can't reach my age and not have troubles," she replied. "Only it's like Jesus and Good Friday. When Jesus was crusified on Good Friday, that was the worst day for the whole world. When I get troubles I remember that, and then I think of what happened only three days later - Easter and our Lord arising.
So when things go wrong, I've learned to wait three days... and somehow everthing gets much better."
And she smiled good-buy. But her words still follow me whenever I think I have troubles...
"Give God a chance to help.... wait three days."

Te va nytta? - Till glädje

For what good? - for happiness

Picking up things laying around in our lobby... Opening a drawer with baby stuff. Pictures from delivery, first shoes and so on.
There are Jacob's "real" leather boots that he got from aunt Ellen and Ucle John when they lived in Texas. He wore them with blue jeans and a real jeans jacket with fur color. He was only two months old and laying in his pram. So cool!
Pictures of Erica and Carin holding their newborn little brother! Looking so happy and proud!
16 years later he is laying in a coffin, his favorite gym shoes on. We just did not know what to do with them, they were his pride and joy. He thought they were so cool. Dave and I talked about it. We could not throw them away - so we let them go with him.

There were pictures of me in the delivery room before birth, full of anticipation. And the tired first picture with Jacob on my stomach. He was big, it had been sooo painful. All thay pain - for what use - 16 years and the train hits him and is no more. Pain that will never go away. He will never be again. Not here. Not now. Never to share a joke with. Never to talk about God with. Never to get irritated at. Never in this world.
For what reason?
The only answer is: for the reason of JOY. For all he gave. For all that he was. For the little brother who cared so for his two sisters. For being a son so full of joy.

Now he is walking the golf courses of Heaven. Not knowing time. Not suffering time. He just is. And so will we one day. One day in Heaven. There will only be one day in Heaven. An eternal bright one day.

Ikea - One stop shop...

Last year we renovated our two bathrooms. We had saved  money and when we had enough we let the fantastic plumber and tile setter in. Even though we did not go over board we spent some money. . We had already started to our lobby and our big family room in our basement when it was our turn in line at the tile setter, so we decided this year would be a year of less spending.... that was before we realized that we both needed  to go visit the Dentist..... Not quite the spending, but not too far off.
Anyway what does that have to do with Ikea. Well. After all the redecorating and the dentist we still had to solve Dave's office space in our basement. The old one I kind of threw out with the old yucky carpet... So we had to get him some new stuff. He has occupied our dining room table long enough now. Today we went back to Ikea to get some doors for the cabinets we had bought earlier. And there we were in the middle of a rich country dilemma: Brown doors, like we had planned for 1350 SEK or plain white ones for 450 SEK. Both will keep the stuff out of sight, protect from dust and make a clean nice office area.... Dave said WHITE, I was in debate with myself.
On the one hand, we have the money, on the other hand we could spend it wiser, but then again on the one hand have we now spent so much to improve the rooms in our house why not do the last touch... but then on the other hand when is enough enough.
So how did we come out. Yes, a compromize. The brown doors will be going out of style in august, so they might be on sale before that, so if we wait we might get them cheaper and if not we then will buy the white ones - and maybe a can of brown paint....

My view

It is nice to have a blog of your own. A place where you can air your thoughts and views. And noone will interrupt until you ask them to... But it is also nice to hear others views and thoughts. That is why a blog is good where others can comment.
Welcome to read, welcome to comment