Life:1000 Gifts

I have been thinking about why I haven't posted much these days, and the only answer I could come up with, the painfully honest answer, I am too ugly inside to post things beautiful. I love to write about beautiful things; things of God and family and life, and lately I have not been feeling the way I think I need to feel in order to write. Maybe I am a little melodramatic, which of course I have been told I am, but as I have pondered this over the last week, this is the ugly truth. I am ugly inside. My constant failures and constant disdain for disorder and chaos make my mouth and heart ugly. And my ever faithful and constant God has reminded me that this alone is the reason I needed a rescue. Gracie and I have been reading The Jesus Storybook Bible lately. This children's Bible storybook has brought these adult eyes to tears on a nightly basis. Beautifully written, it recounts the entire Bible and brings the central message of the entire Bible, that of a needed rescue, to life. In the story of Adam and Eve, the beginning of our ugliness, Sally Lloyd-Jones says it like this, " But before they left the garden, God make clothes for his children, to cover them. He gently clothed them and then sent them away on a long, long journey-out of the garden, out of their home. Well, in another story, it would all be over and that would have been....THE END. But not in this story. God loved his children too much to let the story end there. Even though he knew he would suffer, God had a plan-a magnificent dream. One day, he would get his children back. One day, he would make their perfect home again. And one day, he would wipe away every tear from their eyes. You see, no matter what, in spite of everything, God would love his children--with a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. And though they would forget him, and run from him, deep in their hearts, God's children would miss him always, and long for him-lost children yearning for their home. Before they left the garden, God whispered a promise to Adam and Eve: "It will not always be so! I will come to rescue you! And when I do, I'm going to do battle against the snake. I'll get rid of the sin and the dark and the sadness you let in here. I'm coming back for you!" And he would. One day, God himself would come."

I thank God on this Monday, for rescuing me. He has already won my battles and all I have to do is rest in his grace. His grace, his grace envelopes me today and his grace is what takes the ugly and makes it beautiful, and I am thankful....my list goes on....

0071-finding his treasures of a home left behind

0072-still desiring to learn long after our homeschooling adventure ends

0073-little hands working on her letter book

0074-little fingers

0075-getting pictures of my nephew and his loves

0076-my brave boy

0077-small casts filled with names of those who care

0078-the constant sunshine and get well balloons

0079-a daughter who loves and cares for her brother

0080-a husband home safely

0081-new friends to lean on when crisis falls (thank you Frazer family!)

0082-the love of family felt through the phone lines

0083-last week of school

0084-my Jesus, whose death on the cross provided us with the greatest rescue my heart could ever hope for.

0085-and His grace that carries us through this life of pain and ugliness

0086-the hope that one day, all things will be made beautiful

My list will go on despite the ugly....this is the beauty of a life secure in His grace.