Grab the Grace...and the Dream...

So, I posted on my house grief yesterday. And, while I'm still acknowledging the sting and pain of that loss - it is always amazing how God redeems my situation - even for a moment. It refreshes me when I can grab some grace!

If you read my post, and saw my reflections of my house - you know how much I LOVED and was refreshed by our backyard. Nature just feeds my family. With spring arriving, I mourn the lack of  green space for my children outside our door.

We don't really have green space at our complex. But, today...God revealed His beauty is everywhere...

...if you just are open to seeing it...

...and you can take a few moments to savor it as you head out dressed for an Irish Step dance event...

....to just STOP. Take a moment.....

 

...to grab some grace...

...and simply BE exuberant... 

~~~

....and try to remember not to judge the person, place, or thing your grace and beauty comes in...

Yes...this is where my daughter was blowing dandelions in those pictures. Amazing what you can overlook if you allow yourself. Surprised?

...because it just may be a narrow patch of green space dotted by dandelions, by a parking lot, and a smelly trash dumpster, and an old fence, and by a an old tire heap by your resident building...

...and it is still beautiful because God made it that way for his beloved children to see...

~~~

...the grace is there...just grab it...

I think, for a few minutes, after-dropping-off-the-trash-bags-at-the-dumpster-on-our-way-to-Irish-Step-that-made-me-notice-the patch-of-dandelions-by-the-tree, my heart not only not only came back "home" - it helped me see my real home, my home with God. For a moment, I saw beauty among the muck and trash of man's flawed earth. Grace came, and I grabbed it.

For a moment, I saw that I'm still a thing of beauty amid the trash, muck, stress, and messes of our life following what society sees as a failure. A big financial and personal failure.  A family destroying failure. I'm not as marked by that scandalous failure as I feel I am. It's just up to me to grab the Grace and dream again.

I'll falter. I'll fall in recovering - but like my daughter did today, I'll make a wish and dream again, and remember beauty is everywhere if we are just open to it for one small moment. Especially as we take out the trash in our homes...and our hearts.