stories pt 5

This is part 5 of a series of stories from my life. Earlier posts began a few weeks ago.

I was 16. By this time, I had a growing heart of faith in Christ, but I was also causing my parents some real grief. I was a typical teenage boy.

I purchased a picture from a man who came into the bike shop where I worked. It was a man out on the rocks…a seascape.  It cost about $25 which was a good deal of money for a young man that made $1.50 per hour. I knew that this picture should be my mother’s birthday present on July 19th.

The day came to give her the picture.  Remember, I am a pain in the neck at the time.

She was drinking her morning coffee, sitting in the backyard at the patio table, 4 chairs with a fringed umbrella. She opened the picture just as the sun was coming up over the peak of the house. The edge of the umbrella and the roof-line, cut the sunlight into a beam. The beam of light was fluted by the tassels on the edge of the umbrella. The light looked as though a beam of light was shining from heaven, down upon the man on the rocks.

My mother started to cry. I started to cry. She said, “do you see it?” I said, “I see it.” She said, “that man in the picture is you, and now I know that God will take care of you my son.”

Later in life, when I was going through a rough patch, my mom gave the picture back to me.  She said that I would need to see it more than she did.  The picture has hung in my office for 30 years.  Come by and see it sometime.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.