$3.11

What kind of value does three dollars and eleven cents really hold? I guess to most it's just some loose change in your pocket or enough money scrapped together to buy a coffee. To be honest most days this amount has no signifigance to me at all, money comes and goes so quickly, I rarely stop to think what the true value is. But today, this amount bears a heavy load. This is the amount left in a small change purse that my 2 year old son found as we were going through grandma guptons belongings after she passed this week. The change purse alone holds a particular memory for me. Every Sunday as we sat together in church I'd see grandma open the small latch, thumb through the contents, and in a very humble, yet confident and faithful way make her offering. She never had alot to give, but she gave it all anyways. And when I say this, I mean it in every sense.

So today, the value of $3.11 is the memory of a woman who we called grandma, the last offering she made to the church, the life & values she gave to my family, (because without her I would'nt have my husband or children), nor the memory of her laughter, her kindness, her christian example.

Stella lived in a small town called Henderson, NC. This is where she was born, raised, married and raised her family. Although I had heard stories of this small town, I had never been there. This week, for the funeral services, I had the opportunity to visit. I tried to take in all of it I could. Knowing this is where the family that has so graciously accepted me and I call my own had begun. I like to know these things, the things that make us who we are, so I can pass on to my children their origin. And even though they may never remember Stella she is still apart of who they are and who they will become.

Philippians 1:3-6