Day 198 - Flowers and a Raffle Ticket for Natalie

Tonight my 18 year son brought his long-time friend, Natalie, over for dinner. He had taken her to a lacrosse game where they watched the game through the window of the car. Natalie is one of the kindest, sweetest girls I know and she has always loved to come to every sporting event to cheer her friends on. But a little over three weeks ago Natalie found out that she has Leukemia.
Just beginning her two year and a half year round of chemotherapy, Natalie is limited in the activities she can be around - both for fear of germs and from the constant fatigue that consumes those fighting cancer. To have her come and have dinner at our house was an honor to be trusted with her care. On the table sat the plastic cup full of flowers that we had cut from my yard yesterday that my son had wanted to take to her, but yesterday she was feeling too weak to see anyone. So she got to see them today, though we learned that my son's plans to regularly bring her fresh flowers from the yard are on the "do not bring" list from her doctors.
But Natalie loves flowers so we are going to be taking lots of pictures. And today's post on 365 Days of Container Gardening is a hope for Natalie - may you rise above this disease that is delaying your college plans and making your future so uncertain. May God grant you healing and strength. May you know the joy and thoughtfulness that you give so many others.
Oddly enough, this week we will finish planting all the landscape around the St. Jude Dream home - a home built by the company I work for, Southern Land Company, that will be raffled off to help raise money for St. Jude Hospital - a hospital that treats cancer patients like Natalie.
Sometimes I think I only get a tiny glimpse of the way God intertwines such random threads of our lives.