"MeMe I can't do this. I need help. This piece won't fit. This puzzle is no good anymore." Katelyn said in frustration. She was busy working a puzzle, while Abbey visited with Mrs. Johnston.
"Are you sure it is the right piece?" Abbey answered her.
"Yes, see it is blue like the sky."
Abbey noticed that Katelyn was struggling to put the piece in the right place. but had it upside down. "Turn the piece around sweetie. It will fit, but you have to put it in with the pointy part in the hole."
"Oh!" Katelyn turned the piece around but continued to struggle. "MeMeeee, help it just won't work. Let's throw it away. I don't want it anymore."
Abbey quietly took the piece from her frustrated granddaughter and put it in the hole. "See every piece has a special place to go and a special way to fit. No other piece will fit in it's hole."
"I know exactly how she feels." Mrs Johnston said. I feel the same way that Katie feels. No matter how hard I try to fit, it just doesn't seem to work."
Mrs. Johnston had been missing church the last few weeks . Johnathan had visited her several times, and she had told him she had not been feeling well. Johnathan felt like there was more to it than that, so he had asked Abbey to check on her. He knew that people seemed to open up to her easily. He had suspected that her sickness had something to do with the passing of her friend . He had told Abbey that he thought she maybe depressed and lonely. Little did he know that she felt like a total misfit.
"Mrs. Johnston, what ever do you mean? Of course you fit. We love you and need you."
"Oh, dear when you have lived as long as I have you realize that you have outlived your usefulness. I feel like all I do is take up space. I can't seem to work or help the way I used to, so no one seems to notice or care if I'm there or not.
Mrs. Johnston was 83 years old and the oldest living member of their church. Of course she was right, she could no longer do the things that she had done years before. She had taught Sunday school at almost every level. She had been a worker in the kitchen and always available to help or visit the shut-ins. She had always been the mama for all the young mothers, an expert in so many things. But as time went on people just got busy with their own life and had forgotten about her.
Abbey felt suddenly ashamed. No one was remembering to do the one-another principles very well lately. She made a mental note to do better herself and to speak to Johnathan about it.
Mrs. Johnston continued, "Ever since Effie died, I just don't feel needed."
"Mrs. Johnston, that is not true. We all need you! Besides you give the best hugs of anyone I know. You may not feel like teaching anymore, but your presence is still needed. Just seeing your faithful face helps Johnathan to preach," Abbey told her. It was true, just this morning, Johnathan had remarked on how he liked to watch her expression as he preached. She was his thermometer and his encourager.
"How could looking at my face help Bro. Johnathan? He likes looking at prunes does he?"
Abbey laughed, "You don't have as many wrinkles as I do. Why you could pass for 85 or 86 easy," she said winking as she spoke. They finished visiting and Abbey and Katelyn left only after getting a promise from her to be at church Sunday.
Just as Abbey walked in the door, her phone was ringing. "Hello?"
"Mom, hi. Where have you been? I have been calling for hours. I really need to talk to you."
"Katie and I have been out visiting. What's wrong Lori?"
"Everything! I hate it here! No one likes me. I just don't fit in. Tom fits perfectly, but no one really wants me here. They just tolerate me because I'm Tom's wife. I'm too old for the young people and too young for the older people. They all talk about stuff I know nothing about. If I stopped coming no one would ever notice.
"Honey I'm sure that isn't true. You are a very likable person. Remember Lori, you are there because God put you there. God is the master builder and He makes no mistakes in his building. The truth was, Abbey could not help but relate to what her daughter was saying. She remembered when Johnathan and she had first come to their present church. Johnathan had seemed to fit right in, but she just could not seem to warm up to the other ladies. She always felt like an outsider. She felt inadequate to follow in the former pastor's wife's footsteps. She had always seemed so wise and so Godly, where as Abbey saw herself as being more human and real. She knew that it had been God's will for them to be there, so she knew the problem was with her, not God. It took time and lots of prayer on Abbey's part. She was always asking God to help her to stand in her gap, and to be a help wherever she was needed, but to never to push or impose herself on others. Soon, little by little, she made a place for herself. She could not imagine being anywhere else now. It had been so long ago, but it was all coming back to her now. She remembered how lonely and useless she had felt. She remembered talking to Johnathan about it He had prayed and talked with her. That was the time that God had given him the message of the dovetail joint church. He had even demonstrated the dovetail joint to the church. He had talked about God being the builder and that he fitly framed us all together to form a habitation of God. He had said that God being the master builder made no mistakes. God makes every church the same way, each having a special purpose and a job to do for God. He put the right person in the right church to do the job and to fill the gap he had designed just for them. No one else could do their job, and each one was just as important as the next. He even explained the purpose of the nails, screws and glue. Abbey remembered him saying even though the nails, screws and glue were not to see or be seen they were necessary to hold the building together. If a nail decided it was not needed and decided to back out of it's place, soon that spot would begin to weaken. She remembered him saying how it was important not to be concerned with the purpose of others, but to find their own purpose and hold their joint together. Abbey reminded her daughter of the message that her father had preached.
"Honey just hold your gap. Love your husband, stand behind him and always be yourself. Remember you are there for a purpose. You may or may not always know the purpose for all that God asks you to do, just trust Him and obey. Do all that your are asked to do with a loving heart. Remember your purpose is to serve others. Give the other ladies time and I know they will come to see what I know to be true. Never give up on God Lori, He is a master builder. Just be the glue that binds and always thank God for His purpose.
"Thanks mom. I know that you are right. I know I have a purpose here, so I will just have to pray more and try harder to be a better friend. Bye mom, love ya."
"Bye Lori, love you too."
Just then the door opened and
Katelyn took off yelling, "Pop-pooh's
home!" In walked Johnathan carrying Katelyn on his broad shoulders.
"What did you and MeMe do today princess?"
"We visited Mrs. Johnston, you know Pop-pooh, the lady that hugs ya a lot real hard? Like this," she said as she reached down from on top his shoulders to give him a hug. "Then we came home and MeMe told Aunt Lori how to be a dovetail."
"A what?" Johnathan looked at Abbey with a puzzled expression.
"Don't ask!" was her reply.
"" "Okay, I won't. We are going out to play, want to join us?"
"Maybe later," she answered as
she watched the two of them go out the
door, with Katelyn still on the shoulders of her favorite Pop-pooh.
"God,
thank you for my purpose. Help me Lord to help wherever there is a need
and to always be the glue that binds."
- Kate Fuqua