When all else fails, choose JOY!
So we grab a basket and load up the Burb... It smells like something died in our car, but we don't care, we're off to the lake on this rather chilly morning in October. I look in the rear view mirror and all four treasures are squeezing their noses tight and smiling. They laugh at the way their voices sound with their nostrils sealed up.
And I smile.
This happy joy__ it's exactly what we all need.
The adventure, the unknown, the empty basket waiting to be filled.
It's really quite glorious.
And when we pile out at the lake, they take off running.
I wonder how we got here so fast?
Wonder how The Charmer keeps up with the rest of them now? It's as if he has always been one of the crew.
I watch the way they care for one another, the way My Siah takes his brother's hand and escorts him over the stream of rocks. I listen to the way he talks to him, the way he encourages and builds up. "Come on Jeddy, you're doing great."
A treasure falls, and tears fill time for a moment.
Joy's not lost, maybe it's just a momentary sting.
I hold the fallen one and I think about the way I pray for this little one, or maybe even how I don't pray the way that I would like to.
And lately, He's been flooding my thoughts with the whole notion of grace.
The harder I think about grace the less I feel like I can actually grasp it's magnificence.
Even in my prayer life I sometimes feel the need to have my act together before I can come into His throne room. I over-spiritualize the simple.
And I've been reading it over and over {because this mind of mind grasps nothing the first time around} and I chew intentionally on it.
It starts out with Paul and the way he affirms that all things are already ours... because of the Son.
"So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future_ all are ours, and YOU ARE CHRIST's, and Christ is God's." (1 Corinthians
And then it's there again in 2 Peter,
"By His divine power, god has given us everything we need for living a godly life."
"ALL THINGS ARE OURS! Every answer to prayer that we need is ours. When we soak our soul in the grace of the gospel, we'll find our desire to spend time with Him in prayer changing. We'll be more comfortable in our set times of prayer and we'll also begin to carry on a non-stop conversation with Him in our heart because we know that He loves to hear our voice. Then, when we are faced with a difficult decision, or when the kids are fighting or need correction, we will be comfortable running to Him. "Lord, I know you're here. Help me see you. Give me grace"__That will be our heart's frequent cry. Because the Holy Spirit loves to make Jesus grand in our eyes, he'll nurture, train, and remind us of His gracious condescension. And when we forget the gospel, He'll gently correct us and make Jesus appear grand to us again. Are the kids making you a little crazy today? Remember you can pray, "I know I'm with you Lord, and you have given everything to me. Please help me see you now."
You can also have confidence when you pray because your heavenly Father loves you__ yes, you, personally. He loves you because you are in the Son he loves; yes, but also because He has chosen to set His love upon you...." (Give Them Grace)
He really has chosen to set Hi love upon us...
"In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the father Himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." (John 16:26-27)
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word... I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:20,23)
"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are."
He has been loving me since before there was a me to love.
No wonder Paul prayed that we might be given the ability to comprehend the incomprehensible: God's love for us in Christ. We'll never get to the end of this. We'll never plumb the depths of his love; even in eternity we'll be surprised by grace every day. Paul prayed that we "may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge (Eph. 3:18-19) In light of our unbelief, it really does take the strength of God to believe this: God loves us.
All things are ours.
All-things-are-ours.
Really ?
I'm holding that amazing little treasure in my arms and her tears are falling.
I gently wipe her light-brown wisps off her damp cheek and I point to the leaves all around. They're colorful and they're beautiful and that same little girl stops crying and finds herself enthralled by the vast amounts of them.
"They're dead," I tell her.
And she laughs.
"Leaves can't die Mama, only people can."
Oh, that Spunky Girl.
She turns my heart up-side -down and in-side-out with joy.
She has no idea how her little comments shape my world.
She has no idea how when God made the leaves fall in Fall, He was reassuring His beloved that death really brings life.
Bright,
Beautiful,
Joy-filled,
LIFE.
The Spunky Girl picked up a pile of leaves and threw them high into the wind, her face all aglow with HAPPY JOY!
We left the lake and spent the afternoon with some treasures friends.
And thanks to pinterest and my sweet mother-in-law, the treasures made us Mamas a grand supply of these glorious treats.
We also built these jolly pumpkin folks right there in her living room.
All things are ours, in Him,
always leaving reason to choose joy. :)
