Like a Puzzle

I had promised the Assisted Living Center where Mom K resides a month ago that I would teach the residents how to draw in a one hour art class. Frankly, in the morning yesterday, it was not what I felt I needed to be doing. Asherel had been sick all week, and while slowly improving, I felt worn out by running back and forth all week between her needs and Mom K's needs. So I didn't enter the Home with the best of attitudes, feeling harried and a little ill myself.

I was sitting by the activities room waiting for a meeting to clear in there so that I could set up my easel and supplies. Perusing my smart phone email messages, the facilities manager walked by, and asked how I was. I told him I was ok, just preoccupied, struggling with some unsolved questions for a WWII book I was working on.
"Oh you ought to talk to Joe and Bob. They were both in the Air-force during WWII."
The problem I was struggling with could be answered by a WWII pilot and I have been searching for one from the area for almost a year now. Why had I never thought to search in Nursing Homes!
And guess who was in my little art class? Joe and Bob.

I did teach the residents to draw. But first, I introduced myself to both Joe and Bob and asked if I could interview them that afternoon. Their stories turned out to be nothing short of miraculous, and could not have been more perfect for my book.

The residents that gathered for the drawing class all laughed when I told them I was going to teach them to draw a horse.
"Sure you will," chuckled one, "I can't draw a straight line."
"Can you draw a circle?"I asked.
"Yes, of sorts."
"How about a rectangle?"
"Yes," they nodded.
"And a triangle?"
"Yes."
"Well then you can draw a horse."

Every one of them made a picture of a horse. All were a little surprised as before their very eyes, basic shapes coalesced and a recognizable horse appeared. All the pieces that never seemed like they could come together in the end created a beautiful picture.

I thought about my book and those lovely final pieces that Joe and Bob provided later that day, how it tied my book together. I could not have made up a nicer ending. Meanwhile, the book I wrote about the blind/deaf dog Tommy had been free for the past couple of days. While not rocketing off the shelves, it wasn't doing badly. All of a sudden, after the art class, I noticed the ebooks were being downloaded in droves. By the end of the evening, the ebook was number one on amazon's bestseller kids' animal books. I wish they had been sold, rather than free, because then I would have more money to send to the farm that rescued Tommy. Hollow Creek Farm had had a massive financial setback. The van that they send every few weeks up North filled with dogs they snatched from euthanasia lists to send them to a new chance at life had broken down on its way home. It needed a new transmission, and several days of hotel stays for the driver. They were reeling from this huge unexpected expense.

I have become not only *aware* of the miracles and blessings in my life, but have come to *expect* them. I am praying that maybe through the Tommy book, maybe through my blog, maybe through a completely unanticipated puzzle piece dropping into place, Hollow Creek Farm (hollowcreekfarm.org) will receive an enormous outpouring of aid.

I never know exactly what God will do. He is forever surprising me. He is constantly tossing the puzzle box in the air, and I look at all the pieces of life scattered about and wonder how on earth this will all come together. That is not the right question, however. The first thing one needs to do is pick up a piece and try to find one place where it fits, and then move on to the next.

Psalm 9:9-10 (NIV)
The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. [10] Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.




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