Rays of Hope

I love it when the light breaks through the darkness; to me it is as if God is sending a touch of hope, a glimmer of His Kingdom, a reminder of light conquering darkness, of grace prevailing.

And it doesn't need to be just some abstract concept. We can (and I think should) be a part of bringing that hope and grace to people around us. Gratitude, a smile...or anything that can bring hope to others.

Rays of Light, Rays of Hope

For today, a simple post. I was driving to drop my daughter off at a friend's house, and noticed the rays of sunshine peeking out at me from behind the clouds. I have a soft spot in my heart and soul for rays of sunlight just like these that emerge from behind the darkness. It is as if God is reaching down to let me know that whatever my desert experiences, it will be OK. No matter what pain, heartache, or absurd stupidity (like the fact that Little League won't accept our older daughter's birth certificate, ORIGINAL birth certificate at that...because it was issued more than a year after her birth date...well, duh, she was born in Vietnam half way around the world, and our wonderful US Government simply doesn't work that fast. Heck I can't ever get a real voice on the phone when I call Government offices...more on that later) the sunshine touches me with God's grace.
It is as if he is smiling down on me in reassurance and reminders that He will never leave me or forsake me, no matter how alone I may feel, or how much in control of several spinning out of control situations I would like to be.
So for today, for the rest of the day I will rest in His comfort, and pray that through my cracked and imperfect being some of His light will also shine out and touch others.

grace notes

Grace notes. I first learned about grace notes when I was a flute student many, many years ago. In musical terms they are the small, quickly played notes that add to the melody of what is being played; a quick embellishment to the music being made.

Today, though, I am thinking about grace notes as embellishments to conversation. Going the extra mile so to speak. Just adding an affirmation, speaking with a smile, asking someone how they are in a sincere way and caring about and listening to their answer.

Wouldn't our conversation be so much more pleasant to others and pleasing to God if we just added a grace note every once in a while.

Mean Girls and Grace

The quality I want most to see my daughter(s) emulate, is grace. And I got a glimpse of it today. Unfortunately there is just way too much "mean girl" drama and nonsense. She said, she said...I am never quite sure who is in or who is out. I wish everyone was in and kindness prevailed.

It seems like recess and the playground are ripe grounds for ungrace to surface. Picking teams, exclusion, running to be first on the two available swings and not getting off forever, or not sharing are the repetitive stories du jour.

Well, today there was a variation on the fair team approach. It seems that a game of dodge ball happened with teams that weren't fair at all, and I am happy to say my daughter's approach was to purposefully get outs so the other team could participate on more level ground. Of course there were those who weren't happy and came in only to kick and not play in the field and wailed at the "stupidity" of purposeful outs.

I for one didn't think it was stupid at all. Rather it was the right choice. A moment of grace.

Grace Encounters

Mt friend Tena calls them Whammies. God Whammies, to be exact. When circumstances are just so coincidental they can't possibly be coincidental. They are grace encounters.

To me a grace encounter is when some of the dots get connected and events or people who seemed to randomly occur or appear in life all of a sudden are connected. I imagine God dipping His hand into a huge vat of invisible ink dots and casting them heavenward, where over time they become visible, one by one and then become connected. All of a sudden, it seems, the dots are connected and the occurrences, grace encounters, not coincidences become apparent.

The other day I couldn't get a particular friend out of my mind. It was as if God was saying over and over, call her, call her...so I may be thick, but I have learned that over time that still small voice is worth listening to, so I called and left a message. I didn't realize my friend had changed jobs, since her voice mail was an out of the office auto responder. Three days after I left her a message I re-connected with two other women at a wedding, one whom I have known for years. It turns out they are both working with this same woman who I had just left a message for. I don't know if I represent a missing puzzle peace or not, but the grace encounter was in knowing I had done the obedient thing by responding to the nudge to call.

Contemplating Grace

I'd like to park here on the subject of grace for a bit. We have been reading Philip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace in Sunday School, and I just can't get enough, enough of the book and thoughts it invites, enough of the concept and grasping it and enough of it in my life.

But it is a tightrope walk and a balancing act, teetering on that fine line of grace. As a parent I want to love, support, encourage and extend a hand of hope and healing. The trick is, I want to stop short of enabling.

I want love and forgiveness to be part of my vocabulary. I want to speak the truth in love. I don't want bitterness to work its way in contaminating my words and relationships. As such, I see grace as a shade of gray. Perhaps a shade of gra(y)ce.