The following conversation is not in any of the Darcy and Flora cozy mysteries…yet. But, come with me this morning to the town of Levi, Oklahoma, and listen in as Darcy talks with her mother about a problem and Flora’s wise recommendation.
Darcy: You are up early, Mom. Couldn’t you sleep?
Flora: I got my nap out, I guess. There’s something in the air this morning, sort of a feeling of waiting for something to happen.
Darcy: All I can smell in the air is your coffee and, let me tell you, it sure hits the spot. I didn’t sleep so well. It’s nearly Christmas, the first one here in our new house, and instead of being excited about it and the friends who’ll be coming for dinner, I’m feeling sad and...(pausing to sip coffee) well, just worried. I don’t listen to the news much any more but I hear enough to know that our world is in a sad state. It’s scary.
Flora: You’ve got to just let some things go, Darcy, those things you can’t help in any way. I’ve found that when something is out of kilter, I pray about it. Then, I fix what I can and let the Lord handle the rest.
Darcy: It’s hard to do that. I keep worrying. So many people right here in Levi are out of a job this Christmas. And that ornery Jones man is in jail again, Grant said, drunk! Did you know that the high school had to be evacuated last week because of a bomb threat? I can’t believe it! Right here in Levi!
Flora: You are good at taking a tangled thread and smoothing it out, Darcy. There’s always a cause for those knots and tangles. The other day, I found my ball of yarn all over the floor. I was going to use it to crochet a scarf. Jethro had gotten hold of it and made a grand mess! He must have had fun. Anyway, I started rolling it up again. When I found a knot, it took a while to untie it but finally, it was a nice, smooth ball of yarn again.
Darcy, (smiling): And I guess there’s a lesson in this story?
Flora (getting up to re-fill her coffee cup): Life gets tangled sometimes, like that yarn and gets knots and snarls. I’ve found in looking at some of the problems of the people we know, in trying to find out what caused the problem, it all goes back to family. I was blessed with loving parents…
Darcy: So was I, Mom!
Flora: But, a lot of people were not. When the family is broken or is not what it should be, everybody suffers…children, and then when those children grow to be adults, they don’t magically become whole and healthy. Many times they take all those hurts and slights and anger from their childhood into adulthood with them, just like a tattered old coat they can’t get rid of.
Darcy: So, what can we do?
Flora: All we can, and what we can’t, give it to the Lord. You are befriending that little Allen girl whose dad disappeared and left her and her mother to shift for themselves. Our church has a ministry to visit and strengthen families who are hurting, not just now at Christmas but throughout the year.
Darcy: I wish we could wave a magic wand and make things right, don’t you?
Flora: I sure do but since we can’t, we have to take our own two hands to try to untangle those snarls and then just be thankful and happy for the blessing of helping others.
Darcy (going to the door and looking out): It’s snowing! Come and look, Mom. Snow is coating the trees and making the woods back toward the old cemetery look light. How pretty!
Flora (standing beside Darcy at the window): Snow light! It is beautiful. Kind of like God’s love, it falls in the darkness and changes things, makes things that aren’t so pretty into something beautiful.
Darcy: I knew when I smelled your coffee perking this morning that I would feel better after a good talk. Is there something special you put in that brew?
jI am so grateful for our family, especially my mom, grandma. They loved the Lord and lived their lives for him. And I’m so grateful for you, too, Aunt Blanche, for the same reasons. I love that your writing always gives the glory to God!
Thank you so much for saying that, Teresa. Mom also recognized that her red-haired granddaughter was a prayer warrior and she really valued your prayers.