The Broken Pilgrim

Last year during the fall season I had my eye on a decorative pilgrim at Steinmart.  He was tall and stately, very serious and determined.  I think he started in the $20 range, and every time I went there I checked on him.  On the day the price with my coupon was merely a little over $3, I brought him home.  Thanksgiving was over at this point, so I was going to save him to use this autumn.  But somehow before he even got out of the packaging, he was broken into pieces.

I don't want to be presumptuous, but I have a feeling a certain little boy whose name may or may not start with the letter T may have had something to do with this!  Bless his heart, he is sweet as pumpkin pie but rough and tumble and 100% boy.  Practically every Willow Tree figure I own has a head being held on by hot glue or a glue dot after coming into contact with this little fellow.  It is getting better as he gets older, but there were lots of accidental casualties during his terrific two's and three's.

I almost threw the pilgrim away; but I had waited a long time for him and hated to toss him in the trash.  So I held onto him, and the other day I pulled out the glue gun to see if he could be pieced back together.

He has some some chips and dents, but overall he came back together nicely!  The only exception was his cracked foot, but I was able to place him in a spot where everyone who comes into the kitchen doesn't have to see his broken shoe.  He is slightly wounded, but still standing, keeping company with pumpkins and apples and other signs of harvest.

While the glue gun was out, I also fixed the head of smaller pilgrim that had come into contact with the T-man a year or to ago.  When the glue gun was cooling and I stood back to take a look at what had been mended and restored, a thought flashed through my mind.


God in His grace and mercy uses and restores broken pilgrims every single day.  

And that is a reason to give thanks.