snowdrops, allposters.comAs we watched our movie "The Bishop's Wife" today, I was reminded of how we seem to overlook the miracles around us every day. Just waking in the morning is a miracle. A baby, financial reversal or avoiding a wreck are miracles. And, yet, how many of us really stop to think about it.
When I was a young teen, we moved to Florida. Daddy had become bedfast from Rheumatoid Arthritis and the only suggestion the doctor could make was to go to Florida or Arizona. My parents couldn't afford the gas to Arizona, so we loaded a mattress in the back of the wagon, helped Daddy in, and off Mother and Daddy went, leaving us with family and friends.
On the third morning, Daddy called us at Grandmother's house. He called. He dialed and held the phone. He could stand, close his hands, shave, and feed himself. A miracle. Two weeks later, the house was on the market and we were in a rental house in Lakeland, Florida. And, Daddy had a job and was able to work again. Two weeks. A miracle.
The agent who helped us find the house was a concentration camp survivor, as was her husband. Adolph and Mona Richmond survived Dauchu, came to the U.S., and built a new life for themselves -- sole representatives of two large German Jew families that were now gone. They had endured things that I was too naive to understand, but I did understand they could never have children and they had numbers tattoed on their forearms. They "adopted" us and treated us as kindly as any grandparents. They were our miracle; we were theirs.
While these seem like small things in the scope of what we consider miracles, they point out that gifts are around us every day. At this time of year, we pause to consider the wonder of a Babe that came that we might live. Let us also remember the many blessings that we have daily --- hope, food, shelter, love, and good health. We are the rich beyond the things we can hold in our hands. It is the things we hold in our heart that matter.
I just love The Bishop's Wife. A funny story about it, one of the managers my son works with told him it was his favorite movie and Christopher HAD to watch it. He thought it was Cary Grant's best movie.
ReplyDeleteChristopher asked who Cary Grant was... I have failed as a homeschoolng mother.
What a lovely testimony to those two people and how fortunate you were to have found them:-) The Bishops Wife is one of our fav's too! Did you know the little girl in the film was also Zsu Zsu in It's A Wonderful Life? I read a sad article about her, she suffered alot of child abuse and had a sad adult life. Everything looks so perfect in the movies:-( Have a Merry Christmas Matty!
ReplyDeleteMatty
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that your father's relief from arthritis was a small miracle. It was a great miracle! And the friends that survived Dauchu too. I want Loretta Young's hat in the Bishop's Wife, of course want to look as lovely as her in it too!
Jane
I want to be that thin! LOL
ReplyDeleteI think Loretta was the epitome of graceful in that movie!
ReplyDeletewhat a beautiful post!
ReplyDeletewhen you wrote of your 'grandparents' my eyes filled up, it certainly is in these type of miracles when others touch our lives in positive ways and when we can bring joy into others lives there is such richness to be found. It is in the simple that we find such complex joy! Thank you for your post! xo