I love today's story from Mimi! God is so good, in both big ways and small! Read, share, and be encouraged! Shannon :-)
Even Pink Christmas Trees
This weekend was
another one of my eventful trips down I-16 to visit with my youngest daughter
and to get hugs from my sweet 3 year old granddaughter. Eventful
is not really a complete assessment of our weekend, nor does it even begin to
describe the working of our bucket list for those 2 days. At the end of a mere 30 hours, we had accomplished
much, and it was time for me to come back on I-16 again. I left with even more to do than when my trip
started, but that will be left till later—much later…I need to recover from
this trip first. J
Saturday morning
we found ourselves in a quaint little shop purchasing beautiful Christmas
ornaments for a 4-foot, pink Christmas tree for Catherine Anne’s room.
Actually, we were in several stores, including the quaint shop I mentioned, Michaels,
and Home Goods—because this year this tree would be beautiful! Catherine
Anne’s tree is 3 years old, just like her. Her tree serves as a reminder of
God’s surprise gifts He gives to us—it is a pink tree that has a story.
In 2010, shortly
after Catherine Anne was born, my daughter Dana wanted a special tree for her
newly decorated pink room. But the
special Christmas tree she wanted was a bit expensive and could not be
justified as a part of the household budget. Dana actually located one at Home Goods that
she put in the buggy and put back on the shelf a couple of times, but finally decided
against purchasing it—that amount of money could be better spent on something
else. She thought maybe next Christmas, the household budget will be bigger and allow for
a $60.00 pink tree. In her words, “ I was good with my decision to
wait.”
As the Christmas
season approached, we were just fine having our precious Catherine Anne
sleeping sweetly in her baby bed, with or without the much sought after pink tree
for her room. We were just thankful for
her safe and healthy arrival.
Surprisingly, I
got an excited call one morning from my daughter, and she exclaimed that we would
not be on the lookout for a pink tree any longer. Why? It
had been delivered to her house in her front yard in the rain!!! Well, maybe not exactly in her front yard…but right
next door, in her neighbor’s yard.
That is the back-story,
and this is the story. One particular early
morning, it was raining, and my daughter went to check on Catherine Anne in her
baby bed. Dana pulled back the window blind
to see how hard it was raining, and behold, there was a pink Christmas tree—one
just like “THE pink Christmas tree,” and
it was sitting right there. It wasn’t
exactly in my daughter’s yard, but it was close—just a few feet away.
Dana told William
(my grandson) to stay in the house and let her run go see what this
tree was doing right out front!!!! She put on her husband’s slippers, slipped a
pullover over her P.J.s, and hurried out the front door in the rain.
See, Dana’s
neighbor was having a yard sale and the tree was there for $2.00. The perfect tree. The exact tree that we had been looking
for. Hallelujah!
Dana asked the
neighbor if she thought the pre-lit tree would work since it had been out in
the rain. The neighbor replied with a maybe and then reduced the price to
$1.00. Amazing! So Dana gathered up the tree in a black, wet
trashbag—dripping in her wet attire—and walked back home with her treasure.
That first year,
in 2010, Dana just put the tree in Catherine Anne’s room with no decorations, only
covered in the lights that miraculously worked in spite of being rain-soaked. Somehow that first year we didn’t need to
have decorations on her tree to be pleased; we were just so grateful for the
gift of the tree. This was a God wink, a surprise gift, and note to self that He gives us the desires of our hearts.
I came back up the
Interstate after my weekend visit remembering this story, but more importantly
remembering my morning with my precious Catherine Anne. We shopped for her new
festive ornaments to decorate her beautiful pink tree. And then we returned to my daughter’s house
and decorated a true gift from God—an answered prayer in the form of a pink
Christmas tree! Blessings and Happy Thanksgiving! Mimi (AKA Anne)
“Take delight in
the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
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