Matt left before dawn on Saturday morning, and man...the days are long without Daddy coming home at 5:00! He preached three times Sunday morning at Sharptown, is with family today...family he hasn't seen in years, and has a funeral, lots of friends and family to catch up with...Uncle Don, Phil and Emily, Nikki, my sister and her precious family...and a bunch more preaching next weekend.
We're rotating between jealous for ourselves and thankful for him! Two 19 hour road trips in 8 days just felt like too much, especially after such a big week last week and two weeks in Haiti in just a few more, but man wouldn't we love to be with all our precious Philly family and churches.
The community I had step up in Haiti when Matt was away is not the same...but it's not gone. Neighborhood girlies came over for the night Saturday, new friends made a new church Sunday (with six kids, nonetheless) seem a lot less new, Ms. Beth moved Sunday dinner to waffles at her house, SD came and sat in the sunshine with me Sunday with all the kids playing baseball in the yard and a mess in the house, Lady Jane adults with me anytime I show up on her doorstop, neighbor-friends and Wesley-friends are having us for dinner, and I'm thankful.
These children challenge every fiber of my being, but man are they my refining process, while bringing such joy. Nora wants to know if "bunnies" and "rabbits" are the same thing just like "God" and "Jesus," Lily continues to fill our lives with lists and plans and propositions, and today Sofie was sure that everything...from piano practice to typing to Math lessons to lunch was simply going to KILL her, and shared the sentence well. Ben-Ben asks every few hours if Daddy is still at work, and then proceeds to follow one sister or another in every kind of mischief he can find. We carry on, and the Lord uses one experience or friend or verse to remind me to carry on faithful still.
A song at church and a song at home have been hounding me with His grace...His grace so needed these days in the world....these days in the lives of so many dear to us...His grace so needed in my home, in my life, just TODAY.
Our dear friends just lost their daughter and sister unexpectedly, and the testimony Ms. Carolyn posted on facebook was this: no matter how ugly or difficult or broken things ever were with her precious daughter, her other children never, ever gave up on her...never cut her off, never stopped trying, never quit.
How powerfully that testimony spoke to me of OUR FATHER.
His goodness has NEVER stopped running after us...His grace has met us at every graveside, every impossible step, every heart-wrenching situation.
There is HOPE in this situation today, in the world today, in the face of WHATEVER we are facing--not because of any power or person or procedure or vaccine or plan--but because God's unmerited, rich grace is RIGHT there. Meets us right there.
Hold onto the Hope we have in Him, family, and love one another WELL. May it be said of us what is said of our Father : He NEVER quit loving, quit pursuing, quit forgiving, or quit extending grace.
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