In Other Words-- Re-visiting Favorite Quotes

You may have stumbled over here today in search of Tuesday's In Other Words. For the next two weeks we are doing something a little different. Loni, our coordinator extraordinaire, has given the hostesses two weeks off. Instead she has asked us to:

share what your favorite quotes were or a specific post shared by a hostess that touched you, encouraged you, etc.

I have been participating in In Other Words since I began blogging, so I have almost three years worth of material to use. There are many posts from others which have touched me in spectacular ways. I don't know where to even begin with that. So, instead, I decided to repost one of my previous posts (from October 31,2006) that still gets an amazing response. Apparently it spoke to some of you out there. Perhaps, it will again.

One more thing, Loni's 12 year old daughter has had heart surgery this week and is currently in hospital recovering. Please keep Loni and her family in your prayers during this time. Have a blessed day! You can go here to see what others are re-visiting today.

"Like the proud mother who is thrilled to receive a wilted bouquet of dandelions from her child, so God celebrates our feeble expressions of gratitude."
~ Richard Foster~

She was four years old.

She was at granddad's house.

He had a brand new car.

She had a nail.

And she scratched her name on the back of the car.

She ran to show granddad her act of love.

Her parent's freaked out.

But granddad swept her up in his arms and hugged her and exclaimed, "she's four years old and she can write her name."

He didn't see it as destruction---he saw it as love and accepted it as such.

This story was told at my grandfather's funeral in 1996. I was 28 years old. After the service, my great aunt came to me and said, "we still have that car." My grandfather had given her to car to use twenty years before but it was always a "loan." She was not to sell it. Twenty-four years my grandfather kept that bouquet of dandelions. Twenty-four years kept that signature. Twenty-four years.

And so it is with God. He stores up our bouquets of love and cherishes them. He chooses to forget our sins and he chooses to keep the love. Go offer Him some love expression today.