There are many things I can thank God for this season! However, in today's story, I want to tell you about someone very dear that came into my life many many years ago. I am immensely grateful for her 'yes' to God. She was a very generous lady, who fondly became known to our family and close friends as “Granny Jan” and she will forever be remembered in our prayers.
This divine intervention began after one of those humbling Sunday mornings when all my kiddos were still very young. Our family had been running a little late that morning trying to corral everyone out the door and into the van, to get to Mass on time. I believe one of the kids couldn’t find matching shoes, another child needed to run back inside to go potty last minute, and another somehow managed to sneak into the van unnoticed during all the mayhem. Needless to say, when we arrived at the church, this child gave us quite an eclectic fashion show. Thinking back on that day, I am chuckling now, but I'm pretty sure that morning I did not think it was very funny.
On top of that, just as we walked through the doors, the Mass captain approached our family and asked if we could please light the candles on the Advent wreath at the beginning of Mass. Do you know where the Advent wreath is situated? Yup, right up front!! Of all the Sunday Masses, it had to be that one! Right? Let’s just say standing up in front of the entire congregation was quite humbling and knocked my vanity and pride down a couple notches.
After Mass, this lady came up to our family, introduced herself, and told me she had been incredibly blessed by watching our whole family up on the altar lighting the Advent wreath candles. At first, I just thought she was being nice because anyone could see the disheveled state our family was in that morning. But for whatever reason that morning God chose to use our family to answer her prayers and bring her great hope. She went on to tell me she had been quite depressed about things in her life, and that morning she started questioning God on her purpose in life when suddenly she saw our family go up to light the Advent wreath candles. When she told me this I was stunned and knew right away this was one of those Holy Spirit-zapping moments.
I thanked Granny Jan from the bottom of my heart and gave her one of my sincerest hugs. Then as we walked her out to her car, she turned and asked me what Mass our family typically attended. She said she had wanted to bring something and needed help. I sincerely thought at the moment, "Well she must need help getting something to the staff at my parish." Since I was a regular parishioner and she was a visitor who had just befriended us, I wanted to help her in any way I could. So I told her what Mass we would be attending the following week, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
The next week, to my surprise, there was Granny Jan, waiting for us in the narthex after Mass. She asked me if I could help her with something that was in the back of her car, so I followed her out. As she was pulling out this beautiful, framed painting of the Holy Family, and a bag full of prayer cards and other Catholic paraphernalia, she turned to me and thanked me profusely for giving her the hope she was desperately needing, then handed me the items and said they were gifts for MY family. Again, I was stunned because I honestly thought she was gifting them to our church staff?!! Granny Jan, reassured me it was not, she wanted our family to have these gifts. I learned she was downsizing from her big home to a small retirement apartment and part of her depression was not being able to take these family heirlooms with her. Granny Jan had a distant son, who was married but they had no children. She then asked if I would be open to taking some more of her Catholic heirlooms into my home? Again, I was speechless, and I graciously accepted her generous offer.
Granny Jan had a gift for being drawn to antique Catholic sacramentals that were being sold in flea markets and estate sales. This ultimately meant over the next couple of months, our home was blessed with many beautiful framed paintings, statues, artwork, crucifixes, and different holy Catholic sacramentals. One was the beautiful Byzantine Lamp (see photo above) that she had inherited from her deceased husband, who went to the Greek Orthodox church when he was alive.
What Granny Jan did not know at that time, was that God had actually used her to answer a prayer of mine!! From the time we first converted to the Catholic faith, I held in the depths of my heart a deep desire. The only Catholic reminders we owned at that time were a crucifix and a Catholic Bible which had been gifted to us by our RCIA sponsors. Since my husband and I were the only Catholics on both sides of the family, I had secretly prayed to God to help me Catholicize my home someday. I grew up in a non-churched home with many artifacts from places my parents had visited but honestly with the exception of a handful that reminded me of my childhood home, and a couple of my mom's original paintings, these meant nothing to me. I wanted to be surrounded by paintings, statues, and Catholic sacramentals that all reminded me of one thing. My final destination which with God's grace, mercy, and justice will be Heaven, forever! I'm grateful for the daily reminders of who I want to live with, and where I want to go, to be in supreme happiness for all of eternity.
Today, dear reader I would like to ask you to please say a quick prayer for Granny Jan. Please don't forget to thank God for always answering your prayers. I promise you from experience, He ALWAYS does in His own loving, merciful way and perfect perfect timing. 
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I pray you found what you were needing today. Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear how this post might have been helpful for you.
Remember you are not alone! No matter what you’ve done or failed to do you are still loved unconditionally by a very merciful and just Lord and Savior!
May God Bless You,
Leslie
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