That is a wonderful true story, Boab, and this is a wonderful thread all round. So many thoughts to ponder on, so many pieces being added to the mosaic. For me, the image of a perfect picture being built up piece by piece, like a mosaic, is the best way I can describe what 'faith' is to me. It is an ongoing process, throughout life. Each piece, each fragment, is beautiful in its own right, and each is unique, but hinting at, pointing to, something so much greater, that I have yet to see as whole, which connects all the individual pieces together. Those fragments can show themselves just about anywhere, at any time, and they are uniquely personal to the one who is experiencing them. If I were to list some of the times I have seen and felt new pieces in the mosaic, they may mean little or nothing to anyone else, because they were for me, for my pattern of understanding. What they all have in common is that they involve a feeling of connectedness with people, with the natural world, a recognition of a wordless love, goodness, beauty and purpose.

I love the poem which says that when we are born, we come "trailing clouds of glory from heaven which is our home". It is as if we arrive, having already seen the big picture. Our lives are spent catching glorious glimpses of it. No doubt about it, catching those glimpses have changed me - the way I think, the way I behave - and, as long as I continue to see them, I know they will carry on doing just that.

"Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now.
There are three things that will endure - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love."

With Love,
- jeanie