Hopefully this doesn't turn into a book report but it is brought to you by a book titled An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski (and the Letter O and the number 3....it felt like Sesame Street briefly!). Moving on this was a great book and I do recommend it. Briefly I will tell you it is about a woman walking to work when a young boy asks if she has spare change. At first, like so many, she ignores him and walks on but something stops her and she goes back to the boy. She ends up buying him a meal and it starts a friendship that ends up helping them both in so may ways and continues to last.
There is an ancient Chinese Proverb that states: An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, and circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle. But it will never break.
That proverb is in the book and I had never heard it before but I really like how it is put because I truly believe we meet everyone for a reason. I like to think that invisible thread is God.You may think I'm crazy for that which is okay and maybe I am. This book reminded me that we all for one have a story and two, there has been at least one event in our life (many times more than one) that has shaped us in some way be it for better or worse. Be it that homeless person we turn our head to try to ignore or that person that has the best car and designer clothes. To often it seems people are stuck in the idea they can't make a difference because they aren't rich or they need money to make a difference and that's not true because I believe, and again maybe I'm wrong, but I believe that at the core of it all people really want and need is to know that someone cares. Maybe that's why in 1 Corinthians 13:13 it states, And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. And again sometimes I think we equate love and showing someone we love them as having to spend a lot of money but at least speaking for myself I don't think that is true. If I could list you every example of how people has shown and proven to me that they care none of them would involve spending a dime, if anything was spent it was their time and patience while busting through the walls and taking the time to listen and/or help in some way. Even if money was spent it wasn't some extravagant thing it would be something as simple as buying a gravy and biscuit or fixing me something at their house...shoot even letting me come to their house. I have to share this example from the book. The boy didn't have food at home and really wasn't sure where or when his next meal would be so the woman gave him a couple options one being she bought the food and would pack him a lunch and he stop by every morning on his way to school and get it. He thought about it and asked if she'd pack his lunch in a brown paper bag. She agreed but you want to know the reason why he wanted the lunch packed in a brown paper bag? When he saw the other kids that brought lunch that showed someone cared for them and when he had that lunch to bring to school in a brown paper bag it not only fed and nourished his body it gave him something to see and know someone cared. Sometimes I look and am amazed at how the invisible thread led me to strangers that helped me in various ways for me to never meet them again and for those strangers that became some of the best friends one could hope to have while on this ride called life. I always think things happen for a reason and I can look back on certain things and see how some situations that I thought were going to destroy me actually happened in a way that was in my favor and though I may not have always picked the right road or stayed on the right road the invisible thread was weaving its way through all of it to help me meet the people I needed to.
I will close with this quote from the book from Laura where she states: But the beauty of life is that inside these disappointments are hidden the most miraculous of blessings.What we lose and what might have been pales against what we have.
