Do you have a cat?

Today I took my two daughters ages 8 and 6 to visit my brother in his group home. He is 47 and has severe autism. It was his annual Christmas party. Tim doesn't speak. If he looks you in the face and makes eye contact, that's great. Anyway...we ate cookies and drank punch. We sat with him at the table as he worked on a toy shape sorter. Some of the other residents talked more. A grey haired man named Gary came up to me and asked, "Do you have a cat?" I said ,"no" He said, "Do you have a dog?" I said "Yes"...he said, "I have a cat." I said, "what's your cat's name?" He said, "Snowball." Then he moved on to my sister Martha and the conversation started again, "Do you have a cat?"...What is bittersweet about it is that I remember Gary from last year and having the exact same conversation with him. There was another girl named Lisa. She talked to Audra and asked her for a hug. I am so glad my daughter smiled and gave a hug willingly. I was so proud of her. This is the same child who rolls her eyes at me. My father and mother were there and as usual my father brought along one of his stringed instruments. This is something he does quite regularly there. Lisa said, "Are we going to sing?" So my father got his banjo out and started playing Christmas carols. There were several residents who joined in...and honestly from a musician's standpoint it sounded terrible! Many of them were singing terribly off key and out of tune. Some slurred the words or just rocked and clapped their hands (off beat of course). But I got to thinking that from God's standpoint it sounded beautiful and precious. I was very blessed by the visit and wondered why I don't visit there more often.