A Blanket for the Future

My wife, Maria Cristina, and I had spent the day hunting for antiques. "One more stop," I suggested. We weren't far from the antiques mall. "It's half an hour to closing time," I said. We'd have to hurry.

We stopped at one booth featuring antique linen. I looked through piles of pillowcases and tablecloths, until I came to a white wool baby blanket. We don't have a baby, but I reached for the blanket anyway. With golden cherubs at each corner, it had a cross-stitch border and lettering in the center proclaiming, "Holy angels guard thy bed."

Maria Cristina looked at it admiringly. Then we checked the price tag. More than we could afford. "The mall is closing," came the announcement over the loudspeaker. "Time to go," I said. Neither of us was given to making impulse buys.

All the way home we talked ourselves out of the baby blanket. It was too expensive. We didn't have a place for it. It didn't fit into our angel collection. That night I turned to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations to find the source for the prayer in the center of the blanket. There it was, "A Cradle Hymn" by Isaac Watts, published in 1715:

"Hush! My dear, lie still and slumber,
Holy angels guard thy bed!
Heavenly blessings without number
Gently falling on thy head."

As I thought of how many little angels the blanket might have kept warm and safe, my resolve melted.

The next day we drove back to the mall and bought the baby blanket. It's now framed and hanging on our bedroom wall. Wouldn't this be the perfect prayer if God blesses us with a child some day?