A Belated Valentine Story

So I came home for lunch last Monday and found these on the dining room table.
As you can see, they are Valentines...one for Jim and one for me.

Jim was working his five-day (yes, five-day) shift and had evidently come home briefly,

leaving these on the table before returning—before I got home for lunch.

Many times, your schedules aren't your own...

...especially when you co-manage a group home for individuals with special needs.

 It would be lunch for one...again...unless you include Hunter and Oscar :)

Nothing unusual in our household, I might add.

 ~
Okay, back to the Valentines...

If you look at the bottom, you can see they are from Joshua.
The crude drawings and juvenile printing could have come from any first-grader, at best.
Josh is in his early twenties.
He is just one of six men who make up my husband's extended family.
Jim Ray is Josh's most favorite person in the world, next to his father.
~
Josh is a little boy in a man's body.
At first glance, he might look much like any other twenty-something young man.
By taking that second look, you will notice that he has the face of a little boy,
somewhat timid, yet still having the trusting eyes of a child.
Josh is autistic and is also a savant of sorts...
...math and trivia are among his strong suits.
~
When I studied those sweet Valentines more closely, they just melted my heart.
I visualized this big, strapping young man sitting at his desk...
...pen, paper and crayons all within reach,
pouring his heart into creating these Valentine cards for us as if he was on a mission.
~
I thought about how we so often imagine what our lives will be like in the future...
...what we will be doing this year or next year...
  ...and remembering the changes that had taken place that brought us to this very moment.

No one could have ever predicted where the turn in Jim's career path would take him.
After thirty-six years in management with the same manufacturing company,
and two houses in two states later,
my husband found himself among the unemployed for eighteen months...
...the exact amount of time his severance lasted.

God was doing His thing.

Over two hundred resumes and a few interviews later, still nothing.

God had something else in mind...
...for He had put something special inside of Jim when He created him.

Something special, to be sure...
...but I admit I had to snicker a bit when I saw Josh's rendition of Jim (above).
And me too, for that matter!
How did Jim get more hair than me...or is that a hat on his head?
But he did get the chin hair right! :)
~
When I see my husband doing his job, working with these special individuals,
I have come to realize that it is way more than just a job to him...
...it is his ministry...it is his mission...

...it is his heart.

And God knew it all along :)

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Proverbs 19:21

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