My mom loves to crochet. Ok, maybe, “loves” isn’t a strong enough word. My childhood memories are filled with images of Mom with yarn and a hook. We’re in the car on a vacation — Mom is crocheting. We’re talking with family — Mom is asking what colors they like, thinking about their next afghan. We’re cleaning the house — the closet is overflowing with bundles of yarn.

    At the time, the appeal escaped me. I often wondered why she spent so much time on it. Sure, it was nice to get one, but they were just blankets and potholders and scarves. Why work so hard?

    Now, as a grown-up with three kids (soon to be four), I think I have a little better understanding. When I lay my son down on a blanket Mom made, when my oldest daughter pulls homemade cookies out of the oven with Mom’s potholders, when I bundle up with the best scarf money can’t buy on those rare cold Texas days — I know why she went to all that trouble. Not just to give us a little comfort, although all her gifts do that. Each gift gives us much more — the thought of her, and her care, and her love.

    Even before my kids were born, she was loving them (and crocheting special afghans for them). For nieces and nephews and cousins and aunts and uncles and grandkids, she put love in every knot. Friends and relatives around the country have their own Joyce Lee treasures, and if they are like me, they smile a little smile when they wrap up with one on a chilly night. And, someday, long after she’s gone, and probably long after I’m gone, too, I hope a Lee still gets their cookies out with one of her potholders.

    She has crocheted a legacy in yarn and love.

    Why do I work so hard on Heartlight? I’m crocheting my legacy.

Each gift gives us much more — the thought of her, and her care, and her love.

    I’m not doing it for myself — although I’ve been tremendously blessed to have read every article we’ve ever published. I guess in that respect I’m better off than my mom; the only thing I think she got from crocheting was carpal tunnel syndrome. I’m doing it for my kids, and my wife, and my mom and dad and brother, and my friends, and friends I haven’t met. I’m doing it for the people who write in every week to say they don’t know what they did before Heartlight. I’m doing it for people who write in with broken English to say we’ve touched them halfway around the world. Even more, I’m doing it because I know God called me to do it.

    For over 6 years now I’ve been working on Heartlight. Late hours, all-nighters, success and frustration — I’ve had them all. God’s grown the ministry in ways that astound me, and sometimes frighten me if I stop to think about them too much. But we press on, and I keep building — humbled that God has chosen such an inadequate man for such a great task.

    My kids probably don’t understand much about my work yet. As far as they know, it’s just something that keeps dad busy for several hours a day. But someday I hope they’ll see a legacy in pixels and pictures and pages that they can be proud of. They’ll see the work of someone who answered the call of God in his little way, and they’ll see the love I tried to put into every line of code.

    I guess I get it from my Mom...

 

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© 2002, Paul Lee.

Title: "A Legacy of Love"
Author: Paul Lee
Publication Date: August 21, 2002