Please Read for Inspiration Part 2

[cwohio]

Jesus In The House

One day he decided to invite the Lord to come home and stay with him. When the Lord arrived, this young man offered him the very best room in the house. The room was upstairs and at the end of the hall. "This room is yours, Jesus! Stay as long as you like and you can do whatever you want to in this room, remember Jesus, its all yours."

That evening after he had retired for the night there came a loud knocking at the front door. The young man pulled on his robe and made his way downstairs. When he opened the door he found that the devil had sent three of his demons to attack the man. He quickly tried to close the door but one of the demons kept sticking his foot in.

Sometime later, after a great struggle, he managed to slam the door shut and returned to his room totally exhausted.

Can you believe that," the man thought. Jesus is upstairs in my very best room sleeping while I am down here battling demons. Oh, well, maybe he just didn't hear. He slept fitfully that night. The next day thing went along as normal and, being tired as he was, the young man retired early that evening. Along about midnight, there came such a terrible ruckus at the front door that the young man was sure that whatever it was would tear the door down. He stumbled down the stairs once again and opened the door to find that were dozens of demons now trying to get into his beautiful home.

For more than three hours he fought and struggled against the demons from hell, and finally overtook them enough to shut the door against their attack. All energy seemed to fail him. He really didn't understand this at all. Why won't the Lord come to my rescue? Why does he allow me to fight all by myself? I feel so alone. Troubled, he found his way to the sofa and fell into a restless sleep.

The next morning he decided to inquire of the Lord about the happenings of the last two evenings. Quietly he made his way to the elegant bedroom where he had left Jesus. "Jesus," he called as he tapped at the door. "Lord, I don't understand what is happening. For the last two nights I have had to fight the demons away from my door while you laid up here sleeping. Don't you care about me? Did I not give you the very best room in the house?"

He could see the tears building in Jesus' eyes but continued on, "I just don't understand, I really thought that once I invited you in to live with me that you would take care of me and I gave you the best room in my house and everything. What more can I do?"

"My precious child," Jesus spoke so softly. "I do love and care for you. I protect all that you have released into my care. But, when you invited me to come here and stay, you brought me to this lovely room and you shut the door to the rest of your house. I am Lord of this room but I am not Master of this house.

I have protected this room and no demon may enter here."

"Oh, Lord, please forgive me. Take all of my house -- it is yours. I am so sorry that I never offered you all to begin with. I want you to have control of everything." With this he flung open the bedroom door and knelt at Jesus' feet. "Please forgive me Lord for being so selfish."

Jesus smiled and told him that He had already forgiven him and that He would take care of things from now on. That night as the young man prepared for bed he thought, I wonder if those demons will return, I am so tired of fighting them each and every night. But, he knew that Jesus said that he would take care of things from now on.

Along about midnight the banging on the door was frightening. The young man slipped out of his room in time to see Jesus going down the stairs. He watched in awe as Jesus swung open the door, no need to be afraid.

Satan stood at the door, this time demanding to be let in. "What do you want, Satan?" the Lord asked. The devil bowed low in the presence of the Lord, "So sorry, I seem to have gotten the wrong address." And with that, he and the demons all ran away.

There is a moral to this tale. Jesus wants all of you, not just a part. He will take all that you give Him, but nothing more. How much of your heart have you given to the Lord? Are you keeping a portion of it away from Him?

Perhaps the attacks are coming more and more each day. Why not let the Lord fight the battles for you? He is always victorious. I have found that God made man simple, all of man's complexities are of his own devising.



Author Unknown

[cwohio]

-Unknown-

Brenda was a young woman that wanted to learn to go rock climbing.
Although she was scared to death, she went with a group and they faced
this tremendous cliff of rock.

In spite of her fear, she put on the gear and she took a hold of the
rope and started up the face of that rock. Well, she got to a ledge
where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, whoever
was holding the rope up at the top of the cliff made a mistake and
snapped the rope against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens.
You know how tiny contact lenses are and how almost impossible to find.
Well, here she is on a rock ledge, with who knows how many hundreds of
feet behind and hundreds of feet above her. Of course, she looked and
looked and looked, hoping that she would be able to find that contact
lens.

Here she was, very far from home. Her sight was now blurry. She was
very upset by the fact that she wouldn't be anywhere near a place where
she could get a new contact lens. And she prayed that the Lord would
help her to find it. Well, her last hope was that perhaps when she got
to the top of the cliff, one of the girls that was up there on the top
might be able to find her contact lens in the corner of her eye.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye. There was no
contact lens to be found. She sat down with the rest of the party,
waiting for the rest of them to come up the face of the cliff.
She looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of that
Bible verse that says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout
the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains.
You know every single stone and leaf that's on those mountains and You
know exactly where my contact lens is."

Finally, the time came when it was time to go down. They walked down
the trail to the bottom. As they got there, there was a new party of
rock climbers coming along. As one of them started up the face of the
cliff, she shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?"
Well, that would be startling enough, wouldn't it? She had found the
contact lens! But you know why she saw it? An ant was carrying that
contact lens---it was moving slowly across the face of the rock!!!
What does that tell you about the God of the universe? Is He in charge
of the tiniest things? Do ants matter to Him? Of course they do. He
made them. He designed them.

Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist. When she told him this
incredible story, he drew a picture of that ant lugging that contact
lens with the words "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this
thing. I can't eat it and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You
want me to do, I'll carry it for You."

If God is in charge of the ants, don't you think He cares about you and
me? I guess Solomon was right. One could learn a valuable lesson
from that ant -- trust in God.

We could probably all say a little more often, "God, I don't know why
you want me to carry this load. I see no good in it and it's awfully
heavy. Still, if you want me to, I'll carry it for You.

[cmc]

I guess 'we' could be the climber with the lost lens- unable to see and helpless. We could also easily identify with that ant accepting to carry such a great burden that would make no sense to such a creature. We could even 'be' the person who saw the ant carrying the lens and shouted out the good news.
I have heard this story before but this time I realize that it was meant for me just for today, to remind me that things do work out as He has planned, and that he uses what He will to bring it all about.

[cwohio]

~Unknown~

One day an elderly man entered into a hospital. He was grumpy from being on medication and the nurses thought him to be insane, as he yelled for his wife to get the apple basket. By the time they had checked him into his room the nurses were exhausted from the fight he was putting up.

"Sir you have to calm down we are doing everything we can for you" they would try to explain.

"I don't need your help" the grumpy man would yell "I want my apple basket". He finally slept. The nurses sighed with relief and talked among themselves whether they should call the hospital psychologist about the old man and his obsession with the apple basket.

As they talked and laughed about the situation the wife came in carrying the basket of apples. They looked kind of stunned as she asked if she could see her husband and deliver his basket. Sure, they agreed as they watched her slip past into his room.

Curiosity consumed them over the next few weeks as they tended to the elderly man. He was eaten with cancer and the doctors had given him no hope of survival. He turned out to be a very calm, happy man once he had his basket. His wife, they noticed, would come in with apples and go out with apples and the curiosity grew even more till one nurse couldn't stand the suspense.

One night as he was nearing the end, the nurse sat down in a chair by the wife." May I ask why do you have that apple basket? I just don't understand the significance."

"I am an apple farmer by trade he sighed. From the time I was 20 till the day I do die I will forever have my apples." The nurse nodded thinking she understood. He just likes his work, she thought, assured now he was a little bit crazy.

As she started to leave, the old man asked her to sit down. "At age 20 I was saved, I accepted the Lord as my Savior." Oh no, the nurse thought. Here comes the lecture on religion. The old man continued. "The day I accepted the Lord as my Savior I got this basket, and each time I had a problem or concern that I could not handle, I put an apple in the basket un-shined."

"Why?" the nurse said shaking her head.

"Because it reminded me to give those problems to the Lord for him to shine. See my basket now, he stated. As my problems disappear so do the apples. As I get new problems, ones I cannot handle alone, I put an apple in."

The humble nurse looked into the basket... only one apple was there.

With that, he took a big breath and grabbed his wife by the hand and faded into eternal sleep. The wife paused for a moment and got up from her place to take from the basket the last remaining apple. She whispered in his ear that his reward awaits him in heaven.

The nurse stayed still and asked with tears in her eyes, "what do you think his riches will be?"

The wife knew what they were, eternal life with Jesus Christ. But she could see the concern and sadness upon the young nurses' face and handed her the apple and said "the biggest apple pie you can imagine!"

That was the day the young nurse was "saved," and from that day on she too always had a basket of apples by her bed.

[cwohio]

The Old Fisherman - Author Unknown


Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of
Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the
upstairs rooms to out patients at the clinic.


One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the
door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man. "Why, he's hardly
taller than my eight-year-old," I thought as I stared at the stooped,
shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face -- lopsided from
swelling, red and raw.


Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening. I've come to see
if you've a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning
from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'til morning."


He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success,
no one seemed to have a room. "I guess it's my face...I know it looks
terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments..."


For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: "I could
sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the
morning."


I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch. I went
inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked the old
man if he would join us. "No thank you. I have plenty." And he held up a
brown paper bag.


When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with
him a few minutes. It didn't take long time to see that this old man had
an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body. He told me he fished for
a living to support his daughter, her five children, and her husband, who
was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.


He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was
preface with a thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no
pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin
cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going. At
bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him. When I got up
in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was
out on the porch. He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his
bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, "Could I please
come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won't put you
out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair." He paused a moment and then
added, "Your children made me feel at home.


Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don't seem to mind." I
told him he was welcome to come again. And on his next trip he arrived a
little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and
a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked
them that morning before he left so that they'd be nice and fresh. I
knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up
in order to do this for us.


In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time
that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.
Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special
delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or
kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk three miles
to mail these, and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly
precious. When I received these little remembrances, I often thought
of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first
morning. "Did you keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him
away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!" Maybe we did lose
roomers once or twice. But oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps
their illness' would have been easier to bear.


I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him
we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good
with gratitude to God.


Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse, As she showed
me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden
chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was
growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself, "If this
were my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest container I had!"


My friend changed my mind. "I ran short of pots," she explained, "and
knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn't mind
starting out in this old pail. It's just for a little while, till I can
put it out in the garden."


She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was
imagining just such a scene in heaven. "Here's an especially beautiful one,
" God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old
fisherman. "He won't mind starting in this small body." All this happened
long ago -- and now, in God's garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand.


God does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the
outward appearance, but God looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7b)

[cwohio]

Let Light Shine Through - Unknown

Once there was an inquisitive nine-year-old girl intently listening to the Sunday Gospel from Matthew 5 "You are the light of the world.…your light must shine before others…" The passage really caught her attention.

The preacher talked in his sermon about the light driving out darkness; about letting our light shine before others so that we, too, can drive out the darkness and gloom around us. The preacher then proposed this question, "And how will you be a light to the world?"

The young girl’s imagination clicked into gear as she thought about being a light. Her thoughts rambled until she looked at the brightly colored patterns of light shining across the pews. She leaned closer to her father and whispered, "Daddy, I want to be like a stained-glass window and let the light shine through me spreading pretty colors."

Jesus said, "In the same way, your light must shine before others so that they may see goodness in your acts and give praise to your heavenly father" (Mt. 5:16).

[cwohio]

~Unknown~

1. Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop this picture. Never think of yourself as ailing; never doubt the reality of the mental image. That is most dangerous, for the mind always tries to complete what it pictures. So always picture "success" no matter how badly things seem to be going at the moment.
   
2. Whenever a negative thought concerning your personal powers come to mind, deliberately voice a positive thought to cancel it out.
   
3. Do not build up obstacles in your imagination. Depreciate every so-called obstacle. Minimize them. Difficulties must be studied and efficiently dealt with to be eliminated, but they must be seen for only what they are. They must not be inflated by fear thoughts.
   
4. Do not be awestruck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as YOU can. Remember also that most people, despite their confident appearance and demeanour, are often as scared as you are and as doubtful of themselves.
   
5. Ten times a day repeat these dynamic words, "If God be for us who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) Whenever you think of these words stop AT ONCE and repeat them slowly and confidently! It most definitely will "improve your conscious contact with God".
   
6. Get a competent counsellor to help you understand why you do what you do. Learn the origin of your inferiority and self-doubt feelings which often begin in childhood. Self-knowledge leads to a cure.
   
7. Ten times each day practise the following affirmation, repeating it out loud if possible. "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13) Repeat those words AT ONCE whenever you think of them (in addition to the 10 chosen times mentioned above). That magic statement is the most powerful antidote on earth to inferiority thoughts.
   
8. Make a true estimate of your own abiltiy, then raise it 10 percent. Do not become egotistical. but develop a wholesome self-respect. Believe in your own God-released powers.
   
9. Put yourself in God's hands. To do that simply state, "I am in God's hands." Then believe you are NOW receiving all the power you need. "Feel" it flowing into you. Affirm that "the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21) in the form of adequate power to meet life's demands.
   
10. Remind yourself that God is with you and nothing can defeat you. Believe that you now RECEIVE power from Him.

[Incognito]

THIS IS A WONDERFUL LITTLE SHORT STORY...
PLEASE READ!

Come with me to a third grade classroom.....
There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and
all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the
front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop
because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened.
It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys
find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find
out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts
his head down and prays this prayer, "Dear God, this
is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes
from now I'm dead meat."

He looks up from his prayer and here comes the
teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has
been discovered.

As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate
named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled
with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher
and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the
boy's lap.

The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is
saying to himself, "Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!"

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of
ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The
teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym
shorts to put on while his pants dry out.

All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning
up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But
as life would have it, the ridicule that should have
been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie.

She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you klutz!"

Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting
for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers,

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
Susie whispers back, "I wet my pants once too."

May God help us see the opportunities that are
always around us to do good.

Remember.....Just going to church doesn't make you a
Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.

I not only love the story --- I love this last quote!!

I only hope that in the coming years there will be many people with fish
bowls around me!!!

~ unknown

[cwohio]

amen! thank you!

[best]

Thank you Lord for filling even thrid grade little girls with Your love.

Women truly are God's gift towards men.

[cwohio]

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to
visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into
complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned
with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic,
glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive and some exquisite -
telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

After all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leavi ng behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress."

"Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most
cases, it's just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously
went for the best cups...and then began eyeing each other's cups."
"Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, houses, cars, things,
money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold
and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define nor change
the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup,
we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us."

God brews the coffee, not the cups . . enjoy your coffee.

"Being happy doesn't mean everything's perfect, it means you've decided to
see beyond the imperfections"

Live in peace and peace will live in you.

[Incognito]

Nice story for Christmas

http://www.theprairiestar.com/articl...ock/live05.txt

[cmc]

Longfellow's Civil War Christmas Song
Bells on Christmas Day


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was filled with sorrow at the tragic death of his wife in a fire in 1861. The Civil War broke out the same year, and it seemed this was an additional punishment. Two years later, Longfellow was again saddened to learn that his own son had been seriously wounded in the Army of the Potomac.

Sitting down to his desk, one Christmas Day, he heard the church bells ringing. It was in this setting that Longfellow wrote these lines:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to
men!
And thought how, as the day had
come
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to
men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to
day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to
men!

Then from each black, accursed
mouth
The cannon thundered in the
South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to
men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good will to
men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I
said;
"For hate is strong
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to
men."

Then pealed the bells more loud
and deep.
"God is not dead, nor doth he
sleep!
The wrong shall fail,
The right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to
men!"

[cmc]

Dear God,
In Sunday School they told us what You do. Who does it when You are on vacation? - Jane

Dear God,
I think about You sometimes even when I'm not praying. - Elliot

Dear God,
Did You really mean "do unto others as they do unto you?" Because if you did, then I'm going to fix my brother. - Darla

Dear God,
I didn't think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday.
That was cool! -Eugene

Dear God,
I read the Bible. What does "begat" mean? Nobody will tell me. - Allison

Dear God,
Are you really invisible or is that a trick? - Lucy

Dear God,
Is it true my father won't get in Heaven if he uses his bowling words in the house? - Anita

Dear God,
Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident? - Norma

Dear God,
Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don't You just keep the ones
You have now? - Cindy

Dear God,
Who draws the lines around countries? - Nan

Dear God,
The bad people laughed at Noah - "You made an ark on dry land you fool". But he was smart, he stuck with You. That's what I would do. - Edward

Dear God,
I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that okay? - Neil

Dear God,
What does it mean You are a Jealous God? I thought You had everything. - Robert

Dear God,
Thank You for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy. - Joyce

Dear God,
Why is Sunday School on Sunday? I thought it was supposed to be our day of rest. - Tom

Author is Unknown

[best]

Subject: So true

My husband and I had been happily (most of the time) married for five years, but hadn't been blessed with a baby. I decided to do some serious praying and promised God that if He would give us a child, I would be a perfect mother, love it with all my heart and raise it with His word as my guide. God answered my prayers and blessed us with a son. The next year God blessed us with another son. The following year, he blessed us with yet another son. The year after that we were blessed with a daughter. My husband thought we'd been blessed right into poverty. We now had four children, and the oldest was only four years old. I learned never to ask God for anything unless I meant it. As a minister once told me, "If you pray for rain, make sure you carry an umbrella." I began reading a few verses of the Bible to the children each day as they lay in their cribs. I was off to a good start. God had entrusted me with four children and I didn't want to disappoint Him. I tried to be patient the day the children smashed two dozen eggs on the kitchen floor searching for baby chicks. I tried to be understanding when they started a hotel for homeless frogs in the spare bedroom, although it took me nearly two hours to catch all twenty-three frogs. When my daughter poured ketchup all over herself and rolled up in a blanket to see how it felt to be a hot dog, I tried to see the humor rather than the mess. In spite of changing over twenty-five thousand diapers, never eating a hot meal and never sleeping for more than thirty minutes at a time, I still thank God daily for my children. While I couldn't keep my promise to be a perfect mother, I didn't even come close, I did keep my promise to raise them in the Word of God. I knew I was missing the mark just a little when I told my daughter we were going to church to worship God, and she wanted to bring a bar of soap along to "wash up" Jesus, too. Something was lost in the translation when I explained that God gave us ever lasting life, and my son thought it was generous of God to give us his "last wife." My proudest moment came during the children's Christmas pageant. My daughter was playing Mary, two of my sons were shepherds and my youngest son was a wise man. This was their moment to shine. My five-year-old shepherd had practiced his line, "We found the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes." But he was nervous and said, "The baby was wrapped in wrinkled clothes." My four-year-old "Mary" said, "That's not 'wrinkled clothes,' silly. That's dirty, rotten clothes." A wrestling match broke out between Mary and the shepherd and was stopped by an angel, who bent her halo and lost her left wing. I slouched a little lower in my seat when Mary dropped the doll representing Baby Jesus, and it bounced down the aisle crying, "Mama-mama." Mary grabbed the doll, wrapped it back up and held it tightly as the wise men arrived. My other son stepped forward wearing a bathrobe and a paper crown, knelt at the manger and announced, "We are the three wise men, and we are bringing gifts of gold, common sense and fur." The congregation dissolved into laughter, and the pageant got a standing ovation. "I've never enjoyed a Christmas program as much as this one," Pastor Brian laughed, wiping tears from his eyes. "For the rest of my life, I'll never hear the Christmas story without thinking of gold, common sense and fur." "My children are my pride and my joy and my greatest blessing," I said as I dug through my purse for an aspirin.

[stud0134]

Hi everyone Its been a while since I have been here and I just love that you all have kept this thread going it just warms my heart. I got a email from a person thanking me for starting this thread and It was so cool to know I have done something to help someone, Even in a small way. Anyways I miss all off you Im in school now for about 9 months working on a degree in computer administration in drafting and design. but I am going to pop in here and there to say hi. See ya and miss you all

Stud0134 ( chris )

[stud0134]

As I walked home one freezing day, I stumbled on a wallet someone had lost in the street. I picked it up and looked inside to find some identification so I could call the owner. But the wallet contained only three dollars and a crumpled letter that looked as if it had been in there for years.
The envelope was worn and the only thing that was legible on it was the return address. I started to open the letter, hoping to find some clue. Then I saw the dateline--1924. The letter had been written almost sixty years ago.

It was written in a beautiful feminine handwriting on powder blue stationery with a little flower in the left-hand corner. It was a "Dear John" letter that told the recipient, whose name appeared to be Michael, that the writer could not see him anymore because her mother forbade it. Even so, she wrote that she would always love him.

It was signed, Hannah.

It was a beautiful letter, but there was no way except for the name Michael, that the owner could be identified. Maybe if I called information, the operator could find a phone listing for the address on the envelope.

"Operator," I began, "this is an unusual request. I'm trying to find the owner of a wallet that I found. Is there anyway you can tell me if there is a phone number for an address that was on an envelope in the wallet?"

She suggested I speak with her supervisor, who hesitated for a moment then said, "Well, there is a phone listing at that address, but I can't give you the number." She said, as a courtesy, she would call that number, explain my story and would ask them if they wanted her to connect me.

I waited a few minutes and then she was back on the line. "I have a party who will speak with you."

I asked the woman on the other end of the line if she knew anyone by the name of Hannah. She gasped, "Oh! We bought this house from a family who had a daughter named Hannah. But that was 30 years ago!"

"Would you know where that family could be located now?" I asked.

"I remember that Hannah had to place her mother in a nursing home some years ago," the woman said. "Maybe if you got in touch with them they might be able to track down the daughter."

She gave me the name of the nursing home and I called the number. They told me the old lady had passed away some years ago but they did have a phone number for where they thought the daughter might be living.

I thanked them and phoned. The woman who answered explained that Hannah herself was now living in a nursing home.

This whole thing was stupid, I thought to myself. Why was I making such a big deal over finding the owner of a wallet that had only three dollars and a letter that was almost 60 years old?

Nevertheless, I called the nursing home in which Hannah was supposed to be living and the man who answered the phone told me, "Yes, Hannah is staying with us."

Even though it was already 10 p.m., I asked if I could come by to see her. "Well," he said hesitatingly, "if you want to take a chance, she might be in the day room watching television."

I thanked him and drove over to the nursing home. The night nurse and a guard greeted me at the door. We went up to the third floor of the large building. In the day room, the nurse introduced me to Hannah.

She was a sweet, silver-haired oldtimer with a warm smile and a twinkle in her eye. I told her about finding the wallet and showed her the letter. The second she saw the powder blue envelope with that little flower on the left, she took a deep breath and said, "Young man, this letter was the last contact I ever had with Michael."

She looked away for a moment deep in thought and then said softly, "I loved him very much. But I was only 16 at the time and my mother felt I was too young. Oh, he was so handsome. He looked like Sean Connery, the actor."

"Yes," she continued. "Michael Goldstein was a wonderful person. If you should find him, tell him I think of him often. And," she hesitated for a moment, almost biting her lip, "tell him I still love him. You know," she said smiling as tears began to well up in her eyes, "I never did marry. I guess no one ever matched up to Michael..