Wendi {at random}

Draped across the rocker in my bedroom is a prayer shawl that gives me comfort and peace whenever I curl up inside its weave. It's the color of the sky on a perfectly clear summer day. It's soft and comfortable like a loved quilt, hand-knitted, prayed over, and blessed to be a blessing to me.

The story of how it came to be mine is an example of how God uses us to bless each other.

Back in December when Grandmomma passed away, we asked our neighbors, Mike and Pam, if they'd keep an eye on the mail while we were in Norton for the funeral. Curt mentioned to them that we'd been to our share of funerals in my hometown lately; my father had died on October 4, and then sweet Michelle had passed back in April 2008. That's a lot of grief in a short time, though I don't begin to think I corner the market on life and loss.

And so Pam shared this bereavement story with her prayer group at her Windsor church. The ladies in her knitting ministry commissioned this beautiful shawl, passed it around the group, prayed over it, and boxed it up for me. Me.

I remember unfolding this shawl as I removed it from the box, and I was moved to tears. How can people I don't even know in a town I'd just moved into care so much? And more significant than that - how does God want me to be a blessing to others near me?

God used this group of women to give me peace, comfort, and grace. He used them to bless me in a time of suffering, to lift me beyond grief to a higher calling. He is so amazing. A week later, I got a call from the boys' school about an application to substitute teach. Within the span of a week, I was a full-time teacher again, in the same building with my own boys, blessed to call a class of eleven other children my own till June. Blessed to be a blessing to children. Thank you, Lord. Your plans are mighty, mysterious, and always just right.