Pictures of Grace

This is a weird time in our world’s history. People are social distancing,wearing gloves and masks to do their shopping and hunkering down for who knows how long. For some this is hard. For those who love being home….not so hard.

I am finding that amid all the “new normal” there are so many reasons to be grateful. There are so many pictures of grace. I am also finding that sometimes those pictures of grace don’t look quite what we are used to!

Today, after helping a brother in law who is home-bound, we stopped by our mailbox to pick up the mail. Stuffed in the mailbox was a bag that said the sender was “The Chicken Coop”. I was stumped as to who sent it and what it was. Before I had ever made it to the house I was guessing. (It felt a bit like Christmas!)

The artwork on the back side of the package had me grinning before I even opened it. When I opened it and discovered the t-shirt, pictured above, my grin became even wider.
I was still mystified by who could have sent it; till I opened the card included in the package.

What I read amazed me.  It was from a gal that I know (Glenda V.) who said she reads my Facebook posts and is blessed by them and the photos. What she doesn’t know, is how much she had just blessed me. I have the shirt hanging in my living room at this time and it does my heart good!

Yes, pictures of grace don’t always look like you think they would. Sometimes they look like a t-shirt with a chicken on them and truth written across it. Sometimes they look like my friend (Merilyce) who stopped by with an Easter bag “just because”. (She was also an answer to prayer as my sewing machine was not cooperating and she is a sewing wizard.)

Yes….I am social distancing. But I am continuing to live life…just living it more carefully. I think the card that came with my shirt says it all….. “Be messy+complicated+afraid and then show up anyways.”

Let’s not just survive this time of uncertainty. Let’s live it to the full. Let’s live it fully…just differently than what we are used to. Let’s call people to make sure they are doing okay and to ease the loneliness of staying home. We can be apart and safe and yet stay close and grow those relationships.

Let’s send a card. (this card came from Rosie’s Boutique which is an amazing testimony on it’s own!) Let’s help when it’s messy+complicated+afraid…..let’s show up anyway….even if showing up is a phone call, text or message or snail mail. Let’s meet people where they are….even if where they are is messy and complicated.

May the weekend find you being blessed by those around you and may it also find you blessing someone else by showing grace…..however that grace might look.

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace –
only that it meets us where we are
but does not leave us where it found us.

Anne Lamott

 

 

 

 

Learning From a Cat

We seem to have acquired a cat. Last year this cat wandered to our place and has been wandering in and out of our lives ever since.

She has always been very leery of us till a couple months back. That was the first time I was able to touch her. It took a lot of time…coaxing, leaving food and just talking to her every time she was within sight.

My husband started calling her Blackie, for obvious reasons, but for me I still just call her Cat. She seems to know both names.

Cat loves to sun on our deck in the mornings but runs for cover the minute we open the patio door. It is a different story when we open the door to the garage. Once that door opens she waits for us to come out. I have not yet, figured out why we are so scary when we come out a different door. I have a feeling it is because she expects leftover food from the garage and is not certain what to expect from the patio door.

She has been teaching me a lot of lessons during this time of uncertainty. Her relationship with me kind of reminds me of our relationship with God. We know He is good and only wants what is best for us.

We can get just close enough for Him to touch us….but can get very uncomfortable when He tries to pick us up and carry us. Cat will only let me pet her. When I try draw her close and pick her up she gets nervous and fidgety and wiggles till I let her down.

I have a feeling there are a lot of us; that are like that cat. We really want to be held close to the heart of our Maker but fear holds us back. We cannot imagine that we are loved so much that He wants us that close.

Fear has a way of stealing our joy, stealing our lives and keeping us from realizing an amazing closeness with our Maker and with those we love. It has a way of keeping us from experiencing grace and giving grace.

We are in a time of great uncertainty.  We might be acting a lot like the cat. Perhaps we should step out in trust….perhaps we need to give over control and let ourselves be held close. Perhaps we need to just accept grace and give it in return.

Maybe, just maybe, we need to get beyond waiting at the garage door for leftovers and sit by the patio door and wait for the really good stuff.

May this find you safe, healthy and trusting.  May this find you waiting by the patio door, in faith and hopeful expectation that life will be good because God is good.

Grace is not reserved for good people;
grace underscores the goodness of God.

Andy Stanley