Sister Love

I've had a rough week. Even in a place I have created to plant and water my gratefulness out loud I know it's necessary for me to pull a few weeds from time to time. This was a week of weeding and pruning without too many blossoms left to fill my heart vase. My older sister Rochelle is a beautiful flower left standing in my garden. She is always there. She is sister love.

Today I received a package in the mail. It was a box with three new Ann Taylor v-neck shirts in perfect "Monica" colors and a sweater. Gifts from a sister who is always caring for me and giving. Over the last year she has filled so many spaces of need for our family. When school started last year she bought Delaney school clothes. She literally made Christmas for our family by sending gifts for each of us as well as Christmas dinner. Her gift to me was a beautiful set of Italian creamware dishes and flatware. Why? Because the night after I had Danica she stayed by my side while I thrashed in my bed sweating and screaming and talking out of my head. One of the crazy things I said was I wanted new dishes. (The funny thing is I really did!) Her family sacrificed for months to send money to us to keep our home and eat while I was sick and then recovering. This wasn't extra money they had, it was from giving up things they needed or wanted so we could make it through. This is sister love.

The gift today meant so much more than me having a couple new shirts to wear. It was the perfect timing. It reminded me that my sister is my lifelong friend. No matter what I need physically or emotionally she will always be there. We come from the same place and although so very different in many ways we are finding each day that we are more alike than not. More than anyone else we know the rhythms of each other's lives. We know what we are making for dinner, what our kids are thinking and saying each day, if we have a headache or cramps and what God is teaching us in the midst of all mundane. We remind one another that what we do each day really does matter and being faithful in the small things is a very real calling with eternal reward. We laugh and cry and complain and praise. We allow one another to talk into the wind when necessary and never judge. This is sister love.

I picture us someday, God willing, sitting at a table drinking tea with gray hair and wrinkled hands. There will be no catching up to do. We will know one another in and out. We will know the joy and the pain of this life. We will know amazing blessing and yes, even tragedy. We will see our God so much clearer than today, not faraway from seeing Him face to face. We will know sister love.

Thank You for my sister. Thank you for the gift of her friendship and love. Please bless and keep her tonight (and help her son Avery sleep in his room all by himself with no fuss so she can sleep in her own bed and spend time with her husband).