The Angel

"Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it." Hebrews 13:1,2

I absolutely adore the neighborhood I live in. With all elderly folk as neighbors, we literally are the newest "kids" on the block. There are a few widowed ladies, and I have learned that they are a vault of wisdom. I so enjoy chatting with them. Hearing stories of the "good ol' days". When they all used outhouses, all had farm animals, and they all kept an eagle eye on one another's children. These women can recall the day when our street was made up primarily of Lithuanian immigrants. Indeed, they have lived here a long time.

One of our sweet neighbors is Mrs. Bush. She and her husband began their lives together down the street in 1945. In the past sixty-five years she has raised two sons there; watched her husband deteriorate and eventually succumb to cancer; tearfully seen her son off to Vietnam...and eventually care for him until his death due to the horrific byproducts of the war. She has stood by the grave of her second son, after a terrible snowmobile accident. And she has survived a mastectomy due to breast cancer. But now her cancer has returned. And with a vengeance. It is now in her bones, and her physicians tell her there is nothing left to do. But wait. At eighty-two years old, she certainly has done a lot of that. However, her countenance would never let on to her years of hardships. Mrs. Bush misses her family so; but she is also so very quick to tell of what a wonderful, full life she has lived. Joy resonates from her tiny, frail body. She chooses to be thankful, for she knows The One who is in control.

Our very first Christmas here was two and a half years ago. Mrs. Bush is always the very first to have her Christmas lights on, and the very last to take them down. Every year it gives us quite the chuckle. She goes all out in decorating. And in her large window that faces our house, she would always place the biggest, most beautiful Christmas angel I've ever seen. We would watch it change color and "ooh" and "ahh" over it every year. Last year we just had to tell her how we adored seeing it go up before the holiday season. Mrs. Bush told us how much she loved that angel when she first saw it, and how she just had to have it. And last week she approached me to ask if we would honor her by welcoming this angel into our home. With teary eyes she explained how she just wouldn't have the energy this winter to decorate and celebrate as usual....and that she would be proud to have our girls to display the angel for her. We couldn't have been more honored.

Today we helped her plant some flowers around her yard. And afterwards we brought the beautiful angel home. The girls were in agreement that she needed to be displayed right away, that we ought not wait for Christmas. So I re-arranged and made a spot on a shelf for her to reside. And come Christmas-time, I'm going to find a window to place her in that faces Mrs. Bush's house. That way when Mrs. Bush looks out her window at night she can still see her Christmas angel. And she'll know that we're taking good care of her.

The angel really is quite gorgeous, with her fiber optic lights, flowing dress, soft and delicate features. She's actually even more special to us now, for she comes with a wonderful history.

But, if the truth be told, I think Mrs. Bush is one of the most beautiful angels I've ever seen.