Genesis 39:20-21
The Voice (VOICE)
20 So Potiphar, Joseph’s
master, put him into prison and locked him up in the place where the king’s
prisoners were confined. Joseph remained there for a time. 21 But
the Eternal One remained with Joseph and showed him His loyal love…
Helen lives a half an hour from us. Widowed, she lives alone
in a tiny apartment. Prior to this she lived in suburbia where she kept a
lovely garden. Many of her neighbors there were drug dealers. When police
busted some of them, and because she was usually out in her garden, they assumed
she had been spying on them and turned them in. After they vandalized her home,
she knew she had to leave there.
At 90, Helen walks with obvious pain. She said, “I have
arthritis from here to here,” as she hesitatingly pointed first to her chin and
then to her thigh. She wears a neck brace to keep her neck from hurting.
[i]
I took Sylvia over to see her and her collections of
nutcrackers and ceramics. She has well over a hundred brightly painted
nutcrackers ranging from one inch to five feet tall. The nutcracker “guarding”
her front door stands taller than she and wears a fur hat.
She is proudest of her ceramics. She has scores of figures arranged
on shelves and decorating her furniture. Each one is exquisitely sculpted down
to the finest detail and then painstakingly colored before being fired. She made
them all. She carefully picked one example of her work off of a shelf and
lovingly handed it to us. It was an 8 inch tall perfect statuette of a
neighbor. The neighbor was unhappy because it accurately reproduced all her
wrinkles and blemishes.
“In my old home I had a big kiln; now I just have a little
one that can take up to 8 inch figures,” she confided. She showed us a number
of other items that were in various stages of completion.
Helen is no hermit. Neighbors often gather in her tiny home
for parties or teas. Like Joseph who was unfairly thrust into prison for years
with no direct communication from God, she lives above her ailments. She
continues her creation of beauty and delight.
Lord, like Helen and like
Joseph of old, may I continue to bring joy, comfort, and faith to those about
me in full confidence of Your love.
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