Adopted Sisters



My "adopted sister."



Proverbs 17:22 "A Cheerful Heart is Good Medicine."

She truly defines this verse for me. Gracie is an old semi-homeless, lady that comes to our church every Sunday, enjoys a meal and a cup of tea with us, and puts a smile on our faces.

This Sunday, she was wearing a lovely broach in honor of Mother's Day [Mum's Day.] I exclaimed to her that she looked beautiful and gave her a huge hug and she said, 'NO, I have something for you!' This is what she gave Ben and I as she said, "You two are an adorable young couple!" (Like she tells us every week- she even has a Barbie doll named after me, and my sister, and my mother, both with whom she has never met.)



My gift from Gracie

 

How sweet is that gift! The silly thing is, I actually think the necklace is cute!! She gave a matching one to my friend Penny as well. We are officially her "adopted brothers and sisters." I smiled as I thought to myself, she loves Jesus like me, we are most definately already sisters in Christ!

3 Sundays ago, we met in homes for our Sunday night meetings instead of in the church building to try and cut down on some of the rowdiness/violence from the homeless guys that have been coming every Sunday to Churchfreo. This posed a little issue for people like Gracie who do not own a vehicle and could not walk to Penny and Phil's house, where we met. To solve the problem, Ben and I gave her a lift (as we often do when her feet are hurting her too much to walk home from church.) She likes riding in our cars, so much so, that she named my car Julie and calls Ben's car Evlynn.

She kept us laughing the entire night at Penny and Phil's (or Penelope and Phillip as she calls them) as she made noises and funny faces to little baby Lucy (their 9 month old.)

I was reminded of two things when Gracie gave me that thoughtful gift:

1. She was so thankful of what seemed like such a meaningless thing that sometimes we forget that lending a hand to someone might mean more to them than you think. Such a small task can be a huge blessing to people. Gracie probably had never been inside someone else's home for a meal in many many years, and you can just tell this touched her! May we have hearts like Jesus to never cease to lend hands to others, no matter the size of the task.

2. Just like my grandparents always say, and proves true to my family of having 2 adopted Chinese siblings, "There's always room for one at our family's table, no matter who it is." May I continue to make room for one more, a 70 year old adopted sister!