I have a thing about hearts, believing there’s a special reason for the shape.
I’ve collected a lot of them. Some are store-bought—a heart-shaped muffin pan, shelves inlaid with little hearts, other knickknacks.
The ones I’m really crazy about, though, are the hearts people give me that they happen to stumble upon. My kids bring me heart-shaped rocks, potatoes, leaves, shells, even a heart shape in the side of a freshly baked waffle (couldn’t keep that one!). My husband, Richard, gets in on the act too. Once he shared a scrap of steel shaped like a heart that he found at his welding job.
Every time I see hearts, I believe they’re showing God’s love to me.
That’s what I needed a lot more of right now. We had just moved to North Carolina from Maryland with our two youngest children, and I was looking forward to a more relaxing lifestyle in our beautiful new home by the beach. But things weren’t going as planned. Richard couldn’t find welding work right away. Instead of relaxing, my part-time job as a receptionist had become full-time. And the kids were having problems adjusting to their new school.
One chilly afternoon I was outside with Richard, watching him chop wood for our fireplace. I recited my growing list of complaints. “Things just don’t feel right here yet,” I fussed. Richard lifted the ax above his head and came down on the tree limb with a heavy blow. He’s probably sick of my complaining. I knew I was.
Richard stopped his chopping and waved me over. “Honey, come here,” he said. Now what’s gone wrong? I wondered, trudging over.
“Things are going to be just fine,” he said. “You just need a reminder…”
He handed me the piece of wood he had been chopping. I turned it around in my hands. My heart stopped.
“Look,” he said, pointing. Inside the limb, the cut revealed a hole…
It wasn’t long before Richard found work, and the kids learned to love their new school. And I was finally able to relax.
Whenever I think to complain now, I look at the slice of wood Richard saved for me. A reminder that God always cares…a heart-shaped hole he placed inside a tree branch. What a place to hide a love note!
