The Prayer Quilt

Winner First Place

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Featured in the following WDC newsletters: "Creating Ritual from Routine" , "It's That Time Again"  and "I See You" 

The Prayer Quilt

by GeminiGem of House Lannister

Trina stood alone in her kitchen and looked down at the package that had just arrived in the mail from her mom. It was a lovely handmade patchwork prayer quilt with a beautiful stylized cross in the middle and inspirational bible verses scattered throughout. It was folded and bound with a ribbon. She opened the enclosed homemade card with pretty yellow flowers and butterflies on the front. Inside there was a message:

This quilt is a gift for you.
May it bring you
Warmth, Peace & Comfort

A church quilting and prayer group made these quilts where her mother lived in Nevada. The person who made this particular quilt signed the card, and it explained that each person who receives a blanket would be prayed for at every group meeting.

This is not for you.

The voice that Trina heard was gentle, loving and warm. She thought about what she had just heard. Trina was a deeply spiritual person, and she had no doubt that the voice was divine. She could still feel the peace the voice had imparted with those simple words.

She understood that she was being told that the quilt was not for her because despite her doctors’ fears, she did not have cancer. A routine scan had uncovered the nodules in her lung, and her family and the medical professionals involved in her care were so sure that they were malignant. The relief she felt as she was standing there in her kitchen with the prayer blanket was immense. She understood that she was charged with keeping the quilt for someone who really did need it. Leaving the ribbon around the blanket in place, she took it upstairs and slid it onto the shelf in her bedroom closet.

Several weeks later Trina opened her closet door to put away some clean laundry when she spotted the green and red of the prayer quilt still up on the shelf. It made her think of her employee at the clinic who had cancer. This lady was going to be out of work for an extended period of time due to the complications from the cancer treatment. Perhaps she could use the prayers and comfort that the blanket could bring.

Trina reached up and took the quilt in her hands, then walked over to her bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress with the quilt in her lap. She pulled out her cell phone and started scrolling through her contacts to call her employee. She would need to arrange to get the blanket to her, and mailing it to her was the least intrusive way to do that. It seemed like the right thing to do, but…

Be still.

Trina stopped scrolling and set her cell phone down to listen to the voice that had come to her again. Just two simple words, but again she knew in her heart that she should stop what she was doing. The quilt was not for her and it was not for her employee, either. She felt content to wait until she knew for certain what she was to do. She went to her closet and placed it back on the shelf.

Two days later she sat at her computer going through her e-mails. It did not take long for all the junk e-mails to pile up, and she almost missed the note from the friend she had known since high school. Leah’s communications were sporadic, but their connection of friendship stayed strong despite the decades that had passed and the 1500 miles that separated their homes. She was curious about the timing of this e-mail. Didn't she just see on facebook that Leah and her husband were on vacation?

As she read the e-mail, her heart dropped. Breast cancer. Just before leaving for their planned vacation, Leah had received her diagnosis. She had gone in for a routine mammogram, which had led to a diagnostic mammogram and a breast biopsy. Her surgeon wanted her to continue with her vacation plans for her mental health. Her surgery could not be scheduled until after she would be back from her trip anyway. Her e-mail outlined the many specialists that Leah had to see when she got back from vacation, as well as the surgery planned and the radiation therapy that would follow.

Trina was certain now what she was supposed to do with the prayer quilt. She went to her closet, pulled it off the shelf and immediately packed it in a shipping box. She addressed it to her dear friend of many years. Immediately a feeling of peace and tranquility came over her. She had done the right thing. The blessings and prayers this blanket represented could wrap themselves around Leah and help her get better. Trina would make sure Leah got through this with the love and prayers of people who cared.

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