There Is a Wholeness

Every Wednesday at 4 o’clock p.m. is Social Hour here at Chambrell. Bill is so good mingling with the other residents and learning to know them by name, exchanging bits of news and jokes.
I don’t have that “gift of gab.” It is hard for me to verbalize my thoughts when talking to other people. I do so admire the person who always says the right word at the right time. Socially, I feel inadequate and incomplete.

“There is a Wholeness,” taken from an article printed in Guidepost from a book by Harold S. Kushner entitled: How Good Do We Have to Be?” He tells a story, “The Missing piece,” taken from a book by Shel Silverstein.

The story involves a circle from which a large triangular wedge had been cut. The circle wanted to be whole so it went looking for the missing piece. But because it was incomplete, it could only roll slowly. It admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with butterflies. It enjoyed the sunshine.

It found lots of pieces , but none fit. So it left them all by the side of the road.and went on searching. Then one day it found a piece that fit exactly. It was so happy . Now it could be whole with nothing missing. But as a perfect circle it rolled too fast to notice the flowers or talk to the butterflies. When it realized how different the world seemed, it stopped, left its missing piece by the side of the road and rolled on--appreciating life again..

There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations , who knows who he is and what he can and cannot do. When we have everything we never know what it feels like to yearn, to hope, to dream . In some strange sense we are more whole when we are incomplete. So do not be concerned if your life is not a complete circle. Take time to smell the roses, and thank God for He loves you just as you are.

How do I thank thee?
I see the blue sky
And the bird in wing
I’m awed by the beauty of the trees.
How do I thank thee?
I smell the sweet flower
I feel the warm sun
Yet cool breezes blow over me.
How do I thank you?
I see the sunrise, sunset
Stars twinkling overhead
God made the heaven and the seas.
How do I thank thee
I see it all
I shout for joy - I’m alive
God made all this and God made me.
Wilhelmine

Molded by God

Spring always seems to me a time for renewal. A chance for growth!

My Aunt Ethel had a printed quote hanging in her kitchen window. It said: “God sees us as we can be, but loves us as we are.”

Moses said he was, ‘slow of speech-Oh my Lord, send I pray, some other person,’ Paul said, ‘I know that nothing good lives in me.’

Simon, the fisherman was impulsive, arrogant, self-centered and unfaithful. When Jesus saw him, he looked beyond the mere exterior of this crude fisherman and saw there the picture of a man of vast undeveloped resources.

God calls and does not ask it we are suitable……….only if we are available.
One of the greatest parts of our Lord’s ministry was spent in dealing with men such as these. He seemed to have the ability to look beyond the mere exterior of a person and bring forth the best that was within.
Jesus told Moses: “ I will appoint Aaron to be your spokesman.” He wanted him to be the leader of Israel. How well God knew his potentialities.

To change the actual “Thou Art’ into the ideal ‘ Thou shall be,’ is the high function of Jesus Christ. Regardless of our age or station in life, there are unlimited possibilities of what we may become, if we let God do the leading and the developing.
Just as a green shoot becomes a blooming flower, we too can be transformed into effective Christian living. He understands our inadequacies . He knows us as we are, but he knows what we can become.

New Life
As I look out my window day by day.
I see changes take place, Nature may
Bring forth a green shoot where once
The ground was bare - no life was found.
The sun caresses the tender sprout
I patiently wait and look all about
As it grows taller, I see quite near
Another green shoot and another appear.
Anxiously I wait now with interest anew
As the blooms unfold in glorious hue.
Yesterday a place that did annoy
Today is beauty for all to enjoy.
Wilhelmine