This is Margaret.  She is a security guard at the Camp Hill Mall.  Maybe you’ve seen her there in her uniform when you were shopping with your mommy or daddy.  Well, here she is just waking up this morning . . . All Saints Day.

You know how sometimes when you wake up you can remember the remnants from a dream.  In fact, sometimes you can remember the whole dream in a flash.  That’s what Margaret was experiencing. 

Her dream . . . was about her mother.  Now, Margaret’s mother died some years ago.  She was a sick, old bear when she died.  But in Margaret’s dream, her mother was young again and they were in the forest up in north western PA and they were picking berries and Margaret could remember seeing the bluish purple color of the berries in her dream.  And her brothers were all there and they were playing and romping on the forest floor.  And then suddenly her mother said it was time to go away and the dream grew black and white and Margaret was alone in her dream and she knew her mother was gone. 

And then she woke up.  Margaret laid there in bed for a while, savoring the memory of her mother.  You know, even when you are all grown up and don’t need your mommy anymore, sometimes, way on the inside of you, you still long for your mommy to hold you.  Margaret wept.

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”  Luke 6:20

Margaret said out loud to herself “I wish someone would come and comfort me.”  And then, out loud she said it again “I wish someone would come and comfort me.”  Only this time she added “You know, I believe that Jesus comforts us when we weep.”

Uhmmm, a picture of Mrs. Potato Head just popped into Margaret’s brain!  Probably because Margaret knows that Mrs. Potato Head knows it is All Saints Sunday and she will be thinking about her husband, Mr. Potato Head who died many, many years ago. 

All Saints Sunday is the day we remember all those people who have died this past year.

Margaret got an idea.  And the idea got her singing, right there in bed. 

“♫  Halle, halle, hallelujah, ♫”
“♫  Halle, halle, hallelujah, ♫”  tap, tap, tap
“♫  Halle, halle, hallelujah ♫”
“♫  Hallelujah, hallelujah! ♫”

And by the end of the song, Margaret had jumped out of bed!

“Let them sing for joy as they lie on their beds.”  Psalm 149

Margaret grabbed her hat and was out the door, off to the Cornerstone Coffee shop to buy one cups of Pumpkin Spice coffee and one cup of Double Mocha with Caramel and not two, but four fattening pastries.   And then she’d be off to visit Mrs. Potato Head.  Margaret will knock on her door and bring coffee and pastry and comfort to Mrs. Potato Head.  They will comfort each other and they will laugh.  And Christ will be with them.

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  Luke 6:31.

THE END

Printer friendly copy of this story