The Family received some heart-wrenching news today. I was praying about it on the way to Hobby Lobby – I know, you are thinking heart-wrenching? Hobby Lobby? Huh? Well, yes! And, yes! All I can say is that life is like that. I always focus on the little things in a big storm – “Gotta plug that Christmas tree in! Gotta replace that falling-apart Garland. . . Gotta take care of the little things so it seems like something is getting taken care of.”
Here I am in a new town with new people and tons of family – and I was sorely missing, needing my support system. Where I came from, I could always find someone to pray with – in the grocery story, at my kids’ school, at the coffee shop. If I needed, God always sent someone across my path to help lift me up when I was down.
Tears welled up – a double punch – the heart-wrenching and the missing was like a double wave trying to knock the faith out of me. I went to the back where the garland was since my fresh garland had died, dropping little pines onto the floor. Staring, thinking, praying – sometimes you know how you do it all at once – “Garland. . .Garland. . . Dear Jesus, . . .Blank Space. . .help me. . .Garland. . . Miss home. . . . Looking for . . . Faith. . . so lonely. . .” Yes, not an effective way to pray or shop – but sometimes that is how moments are.
I turned – and standing behind me was a friend who had moved here a few years before I had. We had not had the chance to get together since I moved back, but there she was. She hugged me and the tears pushed upward so wanting to spill out.
She told me, “I just talked to my husband before as I was walking in and said, ‘ I forgot why I came.'”
But that’s God for you. He knew I needed help. And he sent someone to pray with me.
So, if you were in Hobby Lobby today and saw two woment with bent heads, clasping hands, talking quietly – that was my friend praying for me – yes, in the back of Hobby Lobby where the wreathes were – God was there today!
Thank you, God!
Blue Cotton Memory 
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