Dave was working in the flower garden at the church this week. When I saw him there it touched me. It reminded me of a day last summer. I’d been out making some calls and I was walking back into the church with a bottle of water. It was a warm, sunny day. The inner study where I do most of my work has a high, arched window. Marlene was on her knees tending the flowers outside my study window. I said; “Thanks so much for what you are doing. I love to look out the window and see those flowers. I enjoy them every day. Is there anything we can do for you?”
She smiled and said; “I could sure use a drink of water.” I laughed and said, “Well, it looks like I came along at just the right time. I have a nice, cold bottle of water right here.”
I handed it to her and she thanked me warmly. It seemed to both of us that the Lord timed our little meeting and arranged for her to be thirsty and for me to have a bottle of water that afternoon to demonstrate my appreciation for her work.
This summer Marlene isn’t working in the flowers at the church anymore. She may be working with flowers, but she has moved. She lives with her Savior now. She was diagnosed with cancer and within a few months she was with the Lord.
Throughout her illness she had a continual peace and confidence in the Lord without wavering. She was buried in mid-June when the flowers were really just starting.
So now you may understand why it touched my heart to see Dave working in the same flowerbeds this week. She and Dave would have been married forty years if she had lived to the end of the year.
So now when I look out my window at the flowers I thank God for Marlene and Dave and I remember to enjoy Lois and all the flowers she has tended in my life while I still can.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
August 7, 2010
How touching. Of course I had to cry. I used to babysit with Carol when she was little. I also gave Debbie piano lessons for a year. I’ve known Marlene for about 32 years. We don’t appreciate our friends as much as we should while they are here.
Megan and I went to see where Doris Byars was buried yesterday. It just so happened that her husband, Harold and their granddaughter, Sarah were there. I invited him to church but he let that roll and changed the subject. He still needs our prayers for salvation. Keith, their son who is a preacher is back working with the company in Indiana that his father owns now.
Glad you wrote this story.
Thanks for writing Evelyn. Amazing that you would happen to visit Doris’ grave when her husband was there…. God arranges these things if we were only more spiritually perceptive, I wonder how much more we would see… Have a great day.