Margaret's Hope Chest

Margaret?s Hope Chest was born out of tragedy. What else could you call the senseless murder of an 80-year old woman in a grocery store parking lot? Margaret Herrema was my Grandmother. She lived a full and generous life as a wife of 57 years, a mother to 5, grandmother to 17, and great-grandmother to 8. She found additional joy serving others through her volunteer sewing work. Imagine our family?s shock when on April 28, 2005 she was pushed to the ground in a struggle over her purse and suffered a massive head injury. She died two days later on April 30. It would have been easy to lose hope and despair in human kind?s potential for evil. During this time I remember reading Romans 12:12-13, ?Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God?s people who are in need.? By the grace of God and the guidance of this verse I was able to see past my own pain and confusion and look out upon a world filled with countless other hopeless people - people who were in the middle of equally painful circumstances. Margaret?s Hope Chest is a blending of two passions in my life - quilting and helping to spread God?s hope in a broken world.