Change I Can Believe In

It was just a shawl. Lovingly crafted and prayed over by our "Hugs and Stitches" group here at New Hope, the crocheted effort might not have looked like an act of God's handiwork, but it is.

Robert and his wife Jewel are what the Bible calls gently, advanced in years. They speak with the kind of Southern drawl Hollywood has never really captured. They grew up in a time when America was separated by race, in an area not known for racial harmony. Yet I've never known either to ever utter an unkind word about anyone. But I know that when and where they grew up, people knew their places.

Both have medical issues - Robert is in the hospital right now as a matter of fact. They are two of the most loving people I have ever known. The kind of people that cause you to examine whether the way your walk with Christ is progressing will lead you to where they are - mature and solid spiritually, even though their physical bodies are weakened.

Jewel took the shawl home with here Sunday, and called her neighbor across the street to come over, adding "I have something for you." Robert and Jewel's neighbor is an amazingly caring person who has blessed her friends many times and truly been an instrument of God's love to them. She happens to be an African-American.

I say that because lots of things haven't changed about the way people of different races treat each other here in the land of the free. Sure they have where government looks over your shoulder, but not everywhere - and not among many people of Robert and Jewel's ages. That cuts both ways to by the way - when their neighbor came over, she started toward the back door and Jewel threw on the porch light and opened the front door for her friend.

She offered her friend the shawl along with her and Robert's appreciation for how kind the neighbor had been. At first, it was refused with a "that's just too nice, I can't accept that."

Then Jewel told her that she and her friends at church had prayed over that shawl and asked God to bless the person it was given to.

Her neighbor burst into tears and hugged that scarf like a long lost grandchild. the two friends shared tears of joy together.

Now that's change I can believe in.