Good morning…
Monday’s post (Turning 63, I Share Cake) wed Tuesday’s post (Our Souls Last Forever) to birth our blog post for today, this sixth Wednesday in Lent.
Happy, happy “birthday cake boxes” have continued to appear at our doorstep all week, boxes we will deliver with Easter cards and flowers for the senior citizens in Grove Park next Monday and Wednesday. Then yesterday, what would have been Abby Smith’s 22nd birthday on earth, I received this text from her mother.
“Good morning Sue!” Cathy wrote. “Thank you for your sweet post! I LOVE your lamp! I love the reminder that our souls live on forever! I know that, but it was a further blessing for me today!”
“I had a thought this morning & wanted you to ponder,” she continued. “With your cake boxes, would the addition of birthday napkins be a plus or just too much? In Abby’s memory, we’d love to add birthday napkins. If you tell me how many kits that you have, I could do a mixture of pink accents, primary colors, etc. In our home, birthday napkins were always an added bonus for birthdays!”
Of course, you know I love the idea! So each of our “birthday cake boxes” will include colorful napkins in memory of Abby. Loving anything pink or purple, it’s as if Abby herself painted last night’s sunset as her way of saying, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Then, a regular reader from Washington state wrote me before night’s end, “Sue, I love the Ecclesiastes quote from the Message that you ended today’s blog with. (Life, lovely while it lasts, is soon over. Life as we know it, precious and beautiful, ends. The body is put back in the same ground it came from. The spirit returns to God, who first breathed it, Ecclesiastes 12:6-7). It reminds me of Christ’s last words on the cross, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” (Luke 23:46, NIV) or “Father, I place my life in your hands!” (Luke 23:45, MSG). It comforts me to no end.”
Now, up in the middle of the night, I savor a text from Audrey DeShetler’s mom, Jennifer. “Loved your writing today, Sue.”
Then she shared the gorgeous music video below. “I don’t know why this showed up on my feed first thing this morning,” she explained. “I just cried and cried. I went to see Audrey’s grave today and I played this song for her. The Grotto at Notre Dame brought back so many memories.”
While Abby and Audrey’s eternal spirits live on in the gentle care of our Father, let’s enjoy together this angelic music.
…Sue…
