Jesus Gave Me a Gift

Photo by MKR

In the beginning of 2001, I was very depressed because I had health problems and had gone on disability and I was no longer working. I wasn’t eating much and I wasn’t sleeping much. I lost a lot of my friends because of it. I would have felt so much better if I would have just been able to get some sleep. I was exhausted.

Someone gave me the book, the Diary of St Faustina. She was a nun in Poland and who had visions of Jesus and He dictated the Divine Mercy Chaplet to her then died at a young age. I tried to read the book, but I couldn’t concentrate for long periods of time because I was so tired all the time. I flipped through it and read random pages and some of the stuff I read just seemed so weird because I had never read anything about any saints before, so I put it on my bookshelf and forgot about it.

One day I was so sad I just cried, I felt a presence then, but it wasn’t Jesus because it seemed to be female. The only person I thought it could be is Mary, the Blessed Mother of Jesus. The presence was comforting, it felt someone was just there sitting next to me. I said three Hail Mary’s every day along with the three Our Father prayer, and three Glory Be prayers. I also wore the Miraculous Medal that had belonged to my grandma.

Then one day during that cold winter I remember looking at one of my plants after I watered it. The leaves on the schefflera plant come to a point on each end but that day I found a heart shaped leaf. I was amazed and happy, then I decided to see if any of the other leaves looked different. And what do you know? I found another one. I found two heart leaves on the same plant on the same day. The two heart shaped leaves reminded me of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

I took the leaves and pasted them on the inside of a card that said, “nothing is impossible with God” on the front of it. I cherished that card and kept it for years until one day I got mad at God and ripped it up. I pray some day God will transform in secret two leaves on the schefflera plant again. If He doesn’t I will be okay. He gave that gift to let me know He sees me and cares. and I will cling to that.