two kids and a puppy

well my dear ones,

 

Yesterday, I was on my way out

to run a few errands

and to pick up some lunch for my wife;

I'd gotten a late start,

and was a bit pressed for time.

 

But as I neared the end of our street

I saw two kids and a puppy;

there were papers blowing around in their yard,

and the two kids were waving for me to stop.

 

I figured maybe they dropped some books,

and needed some help picking up

all the papers that were in them.

 

As it turned out,

the books and papers spread out in the yard

were all their drawings and artwork;

the little girl (maybe 8)

and her brother (maybe 6)

had everything weighed down with rocks

except for one large pile of drawings

on which the puppy was sitting

in order to keep them from blowing away

(and the pup, named Happy,

 seemed rather well-pleased with himself

 at the great job he was doing =>).

 

They were hoping to sell their stuff,

and they were just so cute about it,

so hoping,

that I bought a couple of drawings from them

on my way out;

and on my way back,

I stopped to see if they had sold any others.

It turned out they had not,

so I bought a couple more.

 

I hope I never live to be so old or so jaded

that I can't spare 5 minutes

to stop and talk to two kids and a puppy

and to buy some of...

...whatever it is that will help them out. =)

 

Have a great week!

 

grace, peace, and love to you,

dave

coincidence

 

well my dear ones,

 

As I've mentioned before,

I like to take broken things

and restore them.

 

I have a friend who lost his brother

some time ago,

so I started restoring a shotgun for him,

a memorial that he could use

to remember his brother.

 

I spent a long time working on

some broken-down specimens,

eventually sending him this

(H&R 20 gauge shotgun):

 

the memorial gun, right side

 

http://theeverencouragingword.blogspot.com/2012/11/memorial-gun-right-side.html

 

and the left side

 

http://theeverencouragingword.blogspot.com/2012/11/memorial-gun-left-side.html

 

and the plaque

 

http://theeverencouragingword.blogspot.com/2012/11/memorial-gun-plaque.html

 

After he received it,

I got a letter from him:

 

"Good Morning Dave:

I received the gift of your kindness

with joy and thankfulness.

It brought back many memories of times past.

When I saw the gun I had to dig out a picture

of my brothers and me holding our shotguns;

and as best as I can remember,

he is holding an H&R 20 gauge shotgun.

I do not recall the model,

but the picture was taken in 1962.

The gun you sent looks the same.

How you chose that gun I do not know,

but it could not be better."

 

That's a pretty interesting coincidence;

what he got is a good remembrance for him

because the gun I sent him is the same

as the gun his brother had 50 years ago.

 

Yet, truly, it was no coincidence at all;

and I'm not surprised by how it all worked out.

This was actually the third gun I worked on;

as I worked on the other two,

neither one 'felt' right,

but when I started on this gun, it did;

God put it on me, "this is the one."

 

What I get from all this is,

even in our trying circumstances,

we can always trust God's timing

and attention to detail.

 

Have a great week!

 

grace, peace, and love to you,

dave

Memorial gun, plaque

Memorial gun, left side

Memorial gun, right side