JUST KNOTTED TOGETHER THEN

I'm glad I took a photo of it before.

I posted about my nephew coming to Okinawa on Oct. 28, and we'd gone to a nearby sushi store. It had been decades since our families had met on the other side of the ocean, but it wasn't like meeting strangers at all, and the Lord gave us a really enjoyable time. (I don't know why JOYCE is the one in the picture left holding the bag of the take-out sushi I ordered for my husband and son at home! Sorry, Joyce!)

Since Michael--that's his name--and I both have this thing about preferring paper books to digital ones, one of the gifts he gave me was a metal cutout bookmark of the Boston skyline (yes; that's where he lives). I used it to keep place for Bible memory work so saw its shiny red tassel every day. Last week, realizing it had been almost half a year since they'd been here, I took a picture of the and e-mailed Michael hello.

I'd sent along a photo of the remodeled store we'd gone to, wondering if our families might be able to meet again. He sent pictures showing he'd actually been getting together with relatives on that side of the globe too! These kids are children of his twin sister. 

(No, I haven't seen his sister since she was a toddler either! I wonder if she'll ever be headed over to Okinawa.)

As I was thinking of responding, I noticed...that bright red tassel just plain came off! I don't know how it was attached, because it's not the frayed ends of the red cords of the bookmark, but clearly a decorative addition at the very end (literally), to make the product more marketable. I liked the red tho', didn't want to do away with it entirely, so simply knotted the end and decided to keep using it that way.

God loves us, uses us broken, attached, knotted, whether we get it together or not...doesn't He? He just waits for us to turn our hearts to His love and surrender our lives to Him completely.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6)