Grace and Peace
The 2015 holiday is done. Tonight, we all end the day looking to tomorrow's return to school, to work, to routine......January brings resolutions, fresh enthusiasm, a new year laid out before us. Grace allows us to look forward.
Last week, I worked a full week between Christmas and New years. I didn't have the week off to lounge in my jammies or meet friends for coffee every day. I had to find stuff for my kids to do, and address the tyranny of the urgent at work, and do life. Grace looks back, and speaks up. Grace...
Life blesses me.
We had a big snowstorm last week and the next days I did visits around the county and as I drove every day, I noticed the beauty all around me. Ice and snow lying heavy on the trees and in the fields. Hawks and blackbirds scavenging.....pristine and untouched scenery everywhere I looked. My eyes were drawn to the trees, standing naked in the cold. In January, in Iowa, the trees are sleeping. They are still and peaceful and stoic and serious. They are a stark contrast against the white snow and the grey skies of winter in Iowa. In the silence of the morning, I can almost hear the deep sighs of slumber from these sleeping trees.
In that space and time last week, between Christmas and New Years' holidays, as I did my work, I found myself worshiping the God of the ages.....who is so good that He even gives the trees permission to rest. So much Grace. He gives them the winter months to shut down, to be still, to not produce and yield and work.......and when their season of rest is finished, He wakes them up again with warm sunshine and the thaw of spring. Our good, good God cares about the life of trees.......and he cares for us as well.
Maybe the holidays were rewarding, maybe hectic, maybe exhausting, maybe sad and lonely. However they finish for each of us.....can we face tomorrow with the truth that God is in our January.....just as He was in our Christmas? He is keenly aware of our rhythm of productivity, creativity, passion and rest. He is in touch with our seasons and knows when to guide us to rest.
Like many other busy moms, I don't get 3 months to rest in the winter. I have housework, and cooking and parenting and my career, and being a wife, and more and more.....but I do get to see and be in and under the trees as they sleep. I get to choose how to spend all the moments of my days......and to notice what is going on around me.
When I am scrambling and stressing about how to navigate the schedule to be everywhere for everyone....I need to picture the trees in winter, and how peaceful they are, and to remember what our pastor taught us this morning. Peace comes after Grace. Seek Grace....and find Peace.
Last week, I worked a full week between Christmas and New years. I didn't have the week off to lounge in my jammies or meet friends for coffee every day. I had to find stuff for my kids to do, and address the tyranny of the urgent at work, and do life. Grace looks back, and speaks up. Grace...
Life blesses me.
We had a big snowstorm last week and the next days I did visits around the county and as I drove every day, I noticed the beauty all around me. Ice and snow lying heavy on the trees and in the fields. Hawks and blackbirds scavenging.....pristine and untouched scenery everywhere I looked. My eyes were drawn to the trees, standing naked in the cold. In January, in Iowa, the trees are sleeping. They are still and peaceful and stoic and serious. They are a stark contrast against the white snow and the grey skies of winter in Iowa. In the silence of the morning, I can almost hear the deep sighs of slumber from these sleeping trees.
In that space and time last week, between Christmas and New Years' holidays, as I did my work, I found myself worshiping the God of the ages.....who is so good that He even gives the trees permission to rest. So much Grace. He gives them the winter months to shut down, to be still, to not produce and yield and work.......and when their season of rest is finished, He wakes them up again with warm sunshine and the thaw of spring. Our good, good God cares about the life of trees.......and he cares for us as well.
Maybe the holidays were rewarding, maybe hectic, maybe exhausting, maybe sad and lonely. However they finish for each of us.....can we face tomorrow with the truth that God is in our January.....just as He was in our Christmas? He is keenly aware of our rhythm of productivity, creativity, passion and rest. He is in touch with our seasons and knows when to guide us to rest.
Like many other busy moms, I don't get 3 months to rest in the winter. I have housework, and cooking and parenting and my career, and being a wife, and more and more.....but I do get to see and be in and under the trees as they sleep. I get to choose how to spend all the moments of my days......and to notice what is going on around me.
When I am scrambling and stressing about how to navigate the schedule to be everywhere for everyone....I need to picture the trees in winter, and how peaceful they are, and to remember what our pastor taught us this morning. Peace comes after Grace. Seek Grace....and find Peace.
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