Welcoming those who influense our lives

Happy Spring....All the plants and trees are starting to bloom, it is my favorite season of the year..

Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago I lost my mother-in-law. I will miss her, we got along well.
When someone we love dies, all we have left to look back on, is the memories we have made and shared together. As part of my eulogy I read a passage from the book "God's guest List", by Debbie Macomber. The theme of the book is that God sends people into our lives. We are either the guest on someone's list, or someone is a guest on our list. We influence each other.

A friend of mine suggested that I post the passage that I read, so here it is:

The story goes something like this:

A woman arrived at the gates of heaven to be met by St Peter. "You may first want to join the others at the throne, " he said to her, "and then greet those you loved on earth. But when you are ready, I'll take you on a tour of heaven."

When the time came for her tour, she could hardly take it all in. It reminded her a little of her earthly home, but she could see that earth had only been a pale shadow of what she was seeing now. They explored every nook and cranny of heaven-waterfalls, fields of flowers, exquisite buildings, and streets of gold.

As the tour drew to an end, she noticed a massive door they had not yet explored. A gold padlock secured it. "What's in that room?" she asked. "You don't want to see that room", St Peter said, steering her away from it. "It's only a storeroom".

"But I do. May I see inside? I want to see every bit of heaven". She said.

St Peter didn't answer. Instead he took a large key out of his pocket, put it in the lock, and turned it. The tumblers clicked and the padlock opened. He took the lock off and opened the door. The woman had to blink several times to take it all in. Inside the cavernous room were stacks and stacks of gifts, wrapped in all the colors of the rainbow and tied with the colors of heaven.

She clapped her hands with delight. "Is this where you store presents for everyone in heaven?"

"No. These gifts are not for heaven, they were meant for earth".

"What do you mean 'were'?" She walked through the stacks and came to a pile marked with her name. "Look, these gifts are for me." She fingered the paper and ribbons. "May I open them?"

"No. You don't need them now." St Peter put a hand on her shoulder, guiding her toward the door.

"But if I don't need them now, does that mean I needed them on earth?" She couldn't take her eyes off the pile. To think she would never get to enjoy all those beautifully wrapped gifts.

He nodded his head. "Yes, you needed them on earth."

She looked around the room, realizing that there must have been millions of gifts. Maybe more, since she couldn't see an end to the room. "Why weren't my gifts sent to me on earth?" As she looked closer, she could read names on all the gifts."Not just my gifts; why haven't any of these gifts been sent?"

St Peter sighed. "You don't understand. Every one of them were sent." Moving his arm in an arc that encompassed the whole room, he said, "All of these and more. These are the ones that were returned unopened." He moved her toward the door. "Many people on earth don't recognize God's gifts and fail to open them."

Well, we all love to give and receive gifts. Gifts come in different shapes and sizes, and some have pretty bows and pretty paper, but the gift, once you open it, may be disappointing. Other gifts come in plain paper, very unassuming, but once you open them you find the perfect gift inside. So it is in real life. Unfortunately, God's presents don't always come gift-wrapped, and they are not easily recognized. Some initially come looking like challenges or they come in a form of a person that crosses our path. Our duty is to be in touch and recognize them when they enter our lives, and hopefully not have too many gifts returned 'unopened'.

We all touch each other's lives in some way and everyone who enters our life is a gift to us for various reasons. There is never a coincidence. We may not realize the reason until many years later.

I hope you enjoyed the parable.
Happy Passover and Happy Easter.