Gifts In Disguise

I always try to find lessons every day through my kids.  Usually that’s where most of them are. 
 In them.  It’s God’s way of speaking to me in His softest tone.

Like every child, Noah loves picking dandelions for me.  From the purest place inside of him, that place of love & wanting to make me happy, he pulls them from the ground.  Collects them in his hands gently & brings them to me.  As a sign of his love for me.  Because he says ‘it makes my heart happy’.

And YES, it does.

And in my own purest form, I accept them.  Kiss him on his forehead & tell him ‘Thank You’.  Not for the ‘weeds’ turned flowers in the moment but for his heart for me.  For his showing me that I can trade what is broken for what is beauty. 

If I open my heart to it.

He sees something that I don’t.

He feels something that I have a hard time accepting at times.

Like God.

I have been handed trials in my life, ugly things, circumstances that I would have traded for anything in the moment.  But God saw something else.  He saw the beauty.  In the moment, He saw what I didn’t.  And in that time, I accepted it.  Sometimes He had to peel back my fingers from the clenched fist I had for Him but I was still accepting because I knew that God was at work.

Thank you Noah, for my lesson today.  For the beauty that you showed me!   For allowing me to see that love & grace sometimes come in the form of things that we would rather dismiss because they aren’t pleasing to us. 

Sometimes the magnificent is disguised until the gift is ready to be revealed. 

The Window Seat

This is for you!

The one that sits quiet & comfortable.

Staring across countryside, along roads torn & into eyes that spark uncertainty.

                                                     

                                                           Silently you observe with birds-eye view.

Through crowded streets & quiet souls.  By way of outstretched hands eager to feel your love for just a moment.

Desperation seeps through your own veins as if you are breathing her breath.  Feeling his loss.  Living within their concrete walls.

And at times, it’s almost too much to bear. 

The burden weighs so heavy. 

Hope covers them like a blanket.  And for some, is the only thing that will tonight.

We hold on to this moment.

The beauty of Doxology sung.  Did angels join in when they heard?

Did even our tears gain power in those moments to shake the gates of heaven?

Through joy in the meeting & sadness in the parting He keeps us on task for His work.  For we are the hands & feet.  Surrendering to the calling.

Just beyond the comfort zone He pulls us.

Beyond the walls that protect us.

Out of the window seat.

And into the presence of angels in the flesh.  To hold their hands.  Be enveloped by their hope. 

And yet WE are the ones that learn the most.  That experience Holy Spirit movement. 

And that’s where we find Him. 

Just beyond the edge.

He placed us here in ruin & rubble so our hearts break wide open to a need so great that we will never go back….to our own way of selfish living.

We move beyond the comfort in our own lives to dwell in the comfort of His arms. 

Seeking to understand the things that don’t make sense with human eyes. 

And like the ones that have nothing, seek Him with EVERYTHING that we do have!

Finally, opening our eyes to what is beyond the tinted glass & making what we see be from God’s majestic eyes & through His touch…..

EVERYTHING becomes beautiful.