Serendipity In A Tin Of Love Notes

Abigail sat on her new to her living room floor unpacking boxes the movers had haphazardly placed about. Feeling both anxious and excited at the same time, she wondered if the two feelings could exist simultaneously.

After all this was her first real big move for a job since she left college four years ago. She had stayed on in her home town because she wanted to be close to her mother who was ill at the time.  Mamma had since passed away, and Abby couldn’t bear to stay any longer.

Thinking of mamma made her feel anguished again, she loved her so dearly. Mamma had went so suddenly. Abby thought of the years she lost in depression. Sure, she saw a therapist for a while, she thought she had it beat. But from time to time depression still reared its ugly little head.

This move was good for her she thought. She wanted to begin again. She hadn’t had a chance to start her young adult life fully yet. Until now that is. Her old routine was work and isolation. She wanted it that way at the time.

But now. She wanted something more, she had an insatiable feeling in her heart that there was more. More to life. She was longing to find belonging. Somewhere, anywhere. She couldn’t help but wonder, would she ever belong to someone?

Come on Abby, she said to herself you have a lot to unpack. So she shook her head and her wondering thoughts away. She needed to focus on the tasks at hand. This was Friday and she started her new job on Monday. She needed to hustle.

She wondered in to her bedroom now. Again she sat on the floor to begin unpacking boxes labeled bedroom. Looking around the room she noticed an odd box. She didn’t recognize it as one of hers.

She gingerly opened the box. She gasped! It was full to the brim with some of her mothers things she had never seen before. Gently taking items out of the box to investigate. Inside were things such as old photos of her mamma and dad, childhood photos of Abby and her brothers, family vacations, picnics and more.

She took out beautifully embroidered hankies and doilies handmade by her mother. Abby found an antique jewelry box, inside it she found a pearl bracelet and a matching necklace and clip on earrings. Beneath that was tissue paper, she took that out to find mamma’s old Bible. Abby remembers mamma reading it all the time. Mamma would read stories from it to Abby and her brothers. Abby remembered going to church as a little girl. She loved learning about the man named Jesus in Sunday school. She hadn’t thought about him in a long time. She had all but forgotten about him over the years.

Next, Abby found a medium-sized tin, trimmed in gold, silver, blue, purple, and scarlet. It was a stunning tin. She had no idea what she would find inside. The lid was tough to get off, she really had to work at it. With one final tug the lid popped off. What was in it was packed so tight that its contents popped out all over the place.

As she looked around she saw pieces of paper of all colors and sizes folded up small. Some of the paper looked newer and some of them looked very old and fragile.

Abby, began to unfold and read the notes. She recognized her mothers handwriting. She read words and phrases like, ” Dear Jesus”, ” I Love You”, Thank you”, ” You are faithful”, “You will never leave me”, ” You chose me”, ” I’m blessed”, ” You called me by name”, ” I am fearfully and wonderfully made”, ” You comfort me”, “You are all II need”, ” I know that no matter how difficult life gets, you are with me”, ” You carry me through”, ” I pray without ceasing”, ” I am blessed”, ” I listen for your whispers”, ” Your voice is precious”, ” You have never failed me”, ” I am Loved”, ” you are my friend”, ” I am redeemed”, ” I am forgiven”, ” Your truth has set me free”. And so many more. There had to be hundreds of these notes here.

On one of the newer looking papers Abby read ” I’m ready to go home”. All of the notes began the same with Dear Jesus, and ended the same Love your daughter, Ellie.

Abby suddenly realized, these were Love notes written from her mamma to Jesus throughout her life. Sobbing now, she realized that her mamma knew there was more to life, and had found and lived that life through Jesus. She saw that her mom found belonging and knew who she belonged to. And she realized when her mamma was ill, she was ready and wanted to go home with Jesus. Also, if mamma was okay with going home, Abby was ready to let her part of her mom go home.Right there and then Abby knew there was more to life and that she belonged to someone. She asked Jesus into her life to be her Lord and Savior. Abby found serendipity in Jesus that day. When she least expected it, in a least expected way, a tin of Love notes.

Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash

*This post was originally published on February 16, 2021 for the #write28Days Challenge