A bowl of Pea Soup

Earlier this month, Paul received a phone call about an older woman in our church. Pearl is a widow, whose husband died about 3 years ago, after being married for 60 years. She missed her husband so much, but tried to continue on with her life. 18 months ago, one of her four sons died. It was very tragic and very sad and Pearl had a hard time coping with that. We would visit her every so often and she would talk about her family and her dog and how much she missed her husband. On one of these visits, we somehow discovered that Pearl loved pea soup. I make a decent pea soup, so I offered to make some and bring it to her. Oh, did she rave about that soup!

The phone call Paul received was from her grandson. The doctors had discovered an anyurism in her head. They didn't know how long she had. When I heard the news, my first thought was that I needed to make her some pea soup. Paul and I went to visit her last week and I told her I was going to bring her some pea soup and she was thrilled. I was unable to bring it to her, so I sent it with Paul on Tuesday.

She died this morning, quite unexpectedly. Her grandson told Paul that the last meal she ate was the pea soup. She asked for it. My first thought when I heard that? Thank you God that I actually followed through with what was an idea from You. My second thought? How many times have I not followed through and missed the opportunity? I also thought of Miss Trellie and how we missed an opportunity there.

I don't like regrets and I know if I had not had made her that soup, I would feel so bad today. Instead, I am thankful. Thankful that God would not let me stop thinking about that soup until I made it. It wasn't me. No, it sure wasn't me.