Isaiah 55: 1,2,&3

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,

and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, 

yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?

  and your labour for that which satisfieth not? 

hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good,

 and let your soul delight itself in fatness

Incline your ear, and come unto me:

  hear, and your soul shall live;

 and I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

 even the sure mercies of David.

Isaiah 55: 1,2,&3

I love this verse; it is one of my favorites.

I often post about the goodness of God, and how He gives us the desires of our hearts. 

Psalm 37:4 says this:

Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Now you be the judge, how unlikely is this to have happened? 

   Victoria magazine has long been one of my favorite magazines,

and I subscribed to it for many years, until I had little time to read it anymore. 

I read an article, many years ago about charm strings. 

   I love antiques, and collect old buttons, but, had never read about the century old tradition of collecting buttons and sewing them into a charm string, with tradition having it that the giver of the thousandth button, would be the one the maker of the charm string would marry. 

 In June of 1993, Victoria magazine carried an article about charm strings. 

I really liked this article and let others read it.  With sharing it, I ended up not getting my magazine back, not even remembering, who I had last let read it. 

 I am not one to keep a lot of magazines,

but, this is one I would have liked to have kept.

I have looked for this particular magazine, for 18 years and had given up on ever finding it. 

 Until a couple of days ago, my friend who had had a yard sale, and had lots of glass left, called to see if I might be interested in buying what she had left.  I bought what she wanted to sell, brought it home, unpacked the glass, put it on shelves and tossed the stack of old magazines, with the exception of a Victoria magazine, that had caught my eye. 

   Today, I had a few extra minutes to read and picked up the magazine, just skimming through the pages, I almost squealed with delight when I came across the article about charm strings.  You might think, so what is the big deal.  I actually ran across, what was probably and old charm string about 20 years ago at a yard sale, but, didn't realize what it was, and didn't buy it.  I remember picking it up and saying to the person with me, 'Look how sweet, some little old lady has sewn her buttons together.'  Authentic charm strings bring a pretty steep price. 

 Some in 1993 were going for several thousand dollars. 

 I love collecting things that have a great story behind them. 

 Now, back to the point of this post.  After 18 years, and having given up on finding the copy of Victoria that had the article about charm strings, it shows up, and Blesses my heart, and makes me smile.  My friend did not know that I had been looking for this magazine, and still does not know.  You might think it is only a coincidence, that maybe she was the last one to read my original magazine in 1993, but, I didn't even know her then.  I only met her a few years ago.

Friend, every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights. 

 Oh, praise Him!

Have a Blessed day, wherever you are.

Trisha