Around Christmastime John went to visit his folks in Oregon and he came back with the story of 'the red-headed angel'. I said, "John. Don't you remember I was the one with the red-headed angel story?" (Gosh it's amazing how often I am NOT right!). No, his father has a story, too. And it's a good one..read it here. Looking back at my redheaded angel story I see that I left out some parts. Like, she'd come in for a rental application, the house I had available for her and her kids sounded perfect for her, yet she never came back again. I cried and/or hugged her 4 different times in the 20 minutes she was in my office. And I'd never seen her before in my life! (yikes..maybe that's why she never came back!) Kidding aside, I just know God sent her to me at the exact right time that I needed her. My mom forwarded me a story this weekend about a guy who's car sputtered to a halt at a gas station where a mom and her three kids were trying to travel across country without enough money. He filled up their gas tank, bought them two big bags of hamburgers, gave her some cash, and when he got back in his car it started up just fine. How can anyone NOT believe in angels? It happens every day. We just have to avoid getting mired in the witnessing of the devil's work to be able to see it (hard to do, I must admit).
Yesterday Caleb and I went to see my friend Jeanette who'd just gotten a new puppy, the cuteness of which I hadn't seen in a long time. Oh those two (Caleb and *Rusty*) had such a grand time running back and forth chasing a ball in Jeanette's backyard. Jeanette lost Murphy, the love of her life shih tzu dog, about a year ago. It depressed her deeply. I remember a couple of years before that when Murphy lost an eye while playing with a bigger dog, Jeanette sat on the couch and held her dog for a solid week. I guess Murphy was about 13 years old when they finally made the difficult decision to put him, deaf and blind (in the remaining eye) and in allover pain, to rest. Hard stuff. As the boy and the dog played in the yard Jeanette told me the story of how she came to aquire Rusty. A couple days prior, she'd dropped off her pics at the drug store for 30-minute developing. It's right next door to the dollar store, which she'd never in her life been in (can you imagine!?) but her friend had been telling her she should go check it out so to kill time she did. Went up and down the aisles filling her cart with all sorts of doodads (OH! what she's been missing!) and in the last aisle a young woman bumped into her. Just saying "excuse me" was not enough. The girl started in with all the current woes in her life, "Oh here I am out in public, don't even have makeup on, bumping into people like I own the place, I'm disabled even tho I don't look like it. My husband's getting his hours cut so money's scarce right now. we have to move out of our home because of mold issues and can't find a place that'll rent to us with a dog.blah blah blah." Luckily, Jeanette is the kind of person that is open to what the universe may be trying to bring her, so she keyed in on "dog? I want a dog!" The girl said "Really? He's a nine month old lhasa apso. He's right out in the car if you want to see." Jeanette went out and the dog jumped right out of the car and started licking her face. She says he looks just like a little Murphy only dipped in brown. Of course Jeanette's husband Victor (being a man and all) was skeptical that it was just a ruse to get money so before anything else Jeanette checked with the vet and sure enough the puppy had been going there routinely and was current with all his shots. Even tho the original owners had paid $500 to a local breeder for the dog they only asked Jeanette for $200. I'm here to tell you, I haven't seen Jeanette beam like that in a long time. I personally would've paid a thousand to see her that happy again. Yes, angels walk among us and do good things for good people every day. And you know; I think we can be those angels; too, if we just pay attention to where we might be needed.
Thanks for the uplifting story. Having a tough day at work, so it really brought a smile to my face!!! So glad your friend received this lovely gift!
Posted by: Barbara | February 07, 2007 at 08:17 AM