love: sandy and ellen

after two such serious posts, i wanna do a fun one like post a pic of my new baby kitty. but han has lost her wire thingie that allows her to download her fotos. darn.

so something bright and cheerful. let's see.....oh, YES, let me tell you about sandy and ellen!!!

after much deliberation of "i will let her see my dirt" and "i cannot let her see my dirt," humility rather than humiliation WON.  several weeks ago i "hired" my gentle, calm friend sandy to come clean my house.  i insisted on paying her (she does this for a living) (we argued long and hard but i won and said she could donate the money to her favorite cause if she wished).  

she came. we started off with a cup of starbucks and "coffee talk." then i showed her my dirt and as i was preparing to leave the house, who showed up? miss ellen. (i don't know why i call her miss ellen. she's my age.) i think it was so much past the time sandy was to arrive, she thot it'd be a surprise for me and i'd be way gone from the house. but i was still there running my mouth. 

there she was - beautiful spirit and smile a shinin' - with several things in tow: dinner for four PLUS THE BEST dessert from delicious capers for us to eat when we got home to our clean house that nite, all tied up in a festive bag with fallish orange and white tissue paper. 

she must've read my mind from the nite before when i thought:  oh, i'd like to have something here for sandy to eat lunch while she cleans ALL day (lots o dirt). but the thot was as far as i'd gotten since i've been so tired lately......but miss ellen, well, she and the Holy Spirit had conspired and answered my heart's tired but well-intended desire (the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak) and brought sandy a beautifully packaged lunch as well!

my joy and tears overflowed. and you know what? they weren't done yet. i went to my car but had to run back in to get something i'd forgotten. you know what they were doing?????

they were in bowed heads PRAYING FOR ME. (the tears return as i write.)

oh, the joy of being part of the body of Christ! the love i cannot live without from other believers. jamison says it well (see previous post).  "love... is the more extraordinary part of the breakwater wall:  it helps to shut out the terror and awfulness, while at the same time, allowing in life and beauty and vitality.....love as sustainer, as renewer and as protector...not only cloak but lantern."