painted rocks

In the spring we began looking for a week when our friend Thanne could come up to our summer cottage for a visit.  After checking both of our calendars we settled on mid-August.  As the date approached, Thanne realized that she could be with us for the first wedding anniversary since planning and executing two memorial services for her husband Walt, who died earlier in August last year.  The thought of being in a place that Walt loved, with some very happy memories shared with friends that loved them both really appealed to her. 

But on the eve of her actual anniversary, we all pondered how best to mark this distinctly special day.  I went to my phone and Googled “ways to celebrate the anniversary of a deceased spouse”, and the ideas were nice…take a walk, make her dinner…all things that we were doing each day of her visit anyway. 

Then inspiration struck.  Here in Epworth, we paint rocks to commemorate people and occasions.  We could do that for Thanne and Walt’s anniversary!

That morning Thanne came downstairs beaming and announced that God had already given her words of Walt’s that had made it a joyful day.  The words from his book “Letters from the Land of Cancer” were written at a period in his twelve-year journey with the disease when he was having a particularly rough time.  They were, “It is a good day.  Gladness is available.  Christ is at hand.”  Then I told her my idea, and these seemed like the perfect words to paint on rocks. 

We also took a hike in a local state park, played Scrabble, worked on a jigsaw puzzle (a diabolical 1500-piece version of a Van Gogh painting that I may be finishing next summer!) and watched a movie on TV with a dinner of popcorn, nuts, apples and chocolate.  It was a good day, not just for Thanne, but for all of us. 

And this is the way that blessing works.  God gives an inspired idea, a way for you to donate yourself to another’s needs; and, in giving, the blessing reverberates and spills back all over you as well.  This is the Holy Spirit, the presence of God.

Gladness is available…to everyone!  Christ is at hand!

Love, Liz