A friend of mine told me that a few years ago her mother asked her to go shopping with her because she needed a new dress. My friend is not a patient person and does not like to shop with her mother. They visited every store in the mall and tried on every dress, her mother rejecting every one of them. The daughter grew weary and the mother grew frustrated.
At the last stop her mother tried on a three-piece outfit. The blouse had a bow at the neckline. As the daughter stood in the dressing room with her mother, she watched as her mother tried with great difficulty to tie the bow. Her hands were so badly crippled with arthritis that she couldn’t do it.
As she watched her mother fumbling with her arthritic hands, it hit her. Her impatience gave way to a wave of compassion for her mother. She went over and tied the bow for her. The dress looked beautiful and her mother bought it.
For the rest of the day she kept thinking of her mother’s hands. They once fed her, bathed her, dressed her, tied her shoelaces, caressed and comforted her and most of all, prayed with her. That night she went to her mother’s room, took her mother’s hands and kissed them. She told her they were the most beautiful hands in the world.
In today’s Gospel (John 15:1-8). Jesus tells us he is the vine and we are the branches. We are joined so closely to him in life, that we don’t even know it. He says that he will give us life in the same way a vine passes life to its branches. My friend’s mother passed love on to her in the same way.
Who can YOU pass your love on to today who is special to you?
GOD OFTEN USES YOUR DEEPEST PAIN AS THE LAUNCHING PAD FOR YOUR GREATEST CALLING!
