Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. . . . —Proverbs 13:20
Cleaning out our mudroom, I hold on to a single kelly-green mitten. I bought the pair almost two decades ago at a church Christmas bazaar. The knitter, Flossy, told me she was ninety-five-and-a-half years old. I remember her smile when I said, “The green ones are gorgeous!”
She held out her wrinkled hand to hold mine and told me that when you get old, you go back to counting the years in quarters, just like you did when you were a kid. And then she shook her head and said, “You grow young again. You’ll see.”
She told me she had lost most of her sight, but she could still knit. I held up the mittens, admiring the intricate stitches, and noticed the low price written in wobbly handwriting on the tag. “Three dollars!” I exclaimed. “Oh, these are beautiful. Only three dollars?”
“I don’t care about the money,” she said. “I just like to make them. They keep my hands busy. Everyone should have a good pair of mittens, and you know what they say about idle hands.” When I paid for them, she held my hand again and said, “Wear them with love.”
RELATED: A COMFORTING SIGN FROM HEAVEN
I put on the mittens right then and wore them for years. Sometime after Solomon was born, I lost one. I searched and searched and thought it would turn up when we moved. It didn’t.
I believed that maybe the other would go missing and then I wouldn’t have to discard it. But here it is, the sole mitten of a pair that has lost its intended purpose. I think of Flossy and everything she said in those few minutes and how I cherish having something she made with love right here in my hands—and perhaps that is its true purpose.
Dear Lord, thank You for the wise people whom I encounter and the sole mitten that helps comfort and warm my soul.
