Last year the day after Thanksgiving I found myself stunned standing in the middle of my driveway.  We had a relatively new postal carrier who saw me and stopped to ask something I cannot remember.  I’m pretty sure he was just checking to see if I was OK.  I had just received the most devastating phone call of my life only a few minutes earlier.  He was the first person I told that my mother had just passed away and I think he was debating whether or not to hug me.  That’s when I found out he was a Christian.  And the quiet conviction in his words affirmed what I already knew about eternal salvation.  I just remember looking into his eyes and trying to absorb his sincere strength, both in his unswerving faith in scripture and in his own personal fortitude.  My then three year old was with me and I was trying not to cry.  She loved her namesake and had been with me to visit my mother almost every day since the day she was born.  When I asked his name, he told me it was Churchill, “like Winston Churchill”.  I do not think that precious man will ever know what he did for me that day.  I was suddenly an orphan with no father, mother, or grandparents left.  And then I watched as he cast loving eyes on my child who is the embodiment, by God’s grace, of all of my blood who have already been called home.  I realized then God was showing me His goodness, mercifulness, and kindness in the midst of such incredible sorrow.  The angel He had sent to comfort me was standing right in front of me.  It really is true that kids and dogs know good people.  My little one took to him instantly.  He calls her sweetheart in a way that never fails to get me.  She looks for him every day with her little eyes, nose and hands pressed against the window and I have often had to stop the car so she can wave to him as he is going along our neighborhood route.  Winston Churchill said we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.  I am blessed to say I know a great man named Churchill.  And I am grateful to God for putting him in our lives.  He is a daily reminder to me to be as happy, positive, and full of joy as he always is — in rain or shine.  As far as I’m concerned he is family and my daughter and I love him as such.  Seeing him each day is healing in a way I cannot explain.  He was kind and thoughtful enough to send back a card after we had given him one at Christmas.  It reads:

“Life is a lovely garden, An ever-growing thing, Where thoughtfulness and kindness bloom like flowers in the spring.”

God bless you and keep you Churchill.  You are a special man and certainly a great one.  I so hope you know you hold the heart of a little girl who lost her beloved grandmother over a year ago now.  She still remembers her and her grandfather, whom she never got to meet, in her prayers each and every night.  Angels walk amongst us; you, sir, are among His finest.