"This is for you," Alan said one Sunday morning. He handed me a long stem of beautiful blooms of sweet-smelling lillies. "I finished reading 'Journey With Jeff,'" he said, "and thought you ought to have this." He added that he wasn't sure if this was appropriate, but I quickly replied, "How could it be any more appropriate!?" Alan told me a friend of his in Hawaii had a 53 year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and this friend had heard of 'Journey With Jeff.' "YOU HAVE TO READ IT!" Alan told him emphatically. I love receiving endorsements like this!!!
~~ Alan has been with our church family about a year now, finding small ways to be of help and encouragement, from shoveling snow to singing in the choir. He has begun attending our Friday morning 'Seriously Funny Bible Study,' where our discussions are punctuated by stories of God's grace. The short stories in 'Journey With Jeff' often have become illustrations, such as my refusal to accept the doctor's diagnosis of Jeff's retardation when he was a year and a half old. When I stopped demanding, "Why us, Lord?" and began asking, "Where do we go from here?" then we began to see God's grace working in the people God sent to help us. (God's grace also can be found in an extraordinarily beautiful stem of blooming lillies!)
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