i think back to our day in the mountains this week . we were so desperate to get away from the gritty routine of life and school and stress and complaining . we needed fresh air, so we drove to a hiking trail in the woods and there we hiked and talked and got our feet wet and finally breathed again .
and as we walked along that peaceful trail, i thought of how that moment and all of its beauty was such a brilliant gift of grace .
because God didn't have to make the sky so blue and the rushing water so lively, but He chose to do so so that we could enjoy this life fully . every moment is grace .
do you realize that ? every single moment is a gift of grace .
do i realize that? every single moment is a gift of grace .
do i realize that? every single moment is a gift of grace .
a life is made up of a multitude of small moments . this moment-- hiking, feeling life and wind and watching light stream through trees -- it's so full of grace and becomes the essence of an entire life . this moment is a gift to me, a gift from a loving Father who delights to give his daughter good things . the moments will add up . little moments of noticing and giving thanks for the grace of now, this changes lives .
and so i walk through the woods marveling at this love of God . a love that not only gives me gifts of light and hiking and mountain-top views, but who gives me life and breath and salvation and hope . who am i that the God of the universe knows me and still chooses to sacrifice His life to give life to me instead ?
i'm humbled by the thoughts of grace and all-sacrificing love as we get back in the car . we decide to explore a small town before returning to reality, but as we drive and talk about everything that needs to be done before next week, i so quickly forget the grace . i forgot to breathe again and i lost sight of the Light .
i remember how the entirety of my future seems uncertain . and i think about how in the past few days God has again been shifting my plans and desires and i don't understand . i feel my heart beginning to break again, beginning to shut down after feeling so vulnerable and weak yet again . i get discouraged, forgetting this grace .
i so quickly forgot the grace as we found an old antique shop . we wandered through and looked at the history and imagined the stories .
and then i saw them .
all over the shop, there were these hands . these iron and jade and glass and plastic hands . they were everywhere . we counted over twenty hands, some sitting together and some hidden and some showcased -- but they were all open hands .
and the words of ann voskamp came flooding back : "the moments open to joy when hands open to receive whatever falls from heaven, all the clear drops shimmering grace ."
the sight of open hands everywhere reminds me of what i am so quick to forget : the only way to truly live is to live with hands open to freely, gratefully receive whatever God chooses to give . the only way to find real and lasting joy is to see God in this very moment, whether i call it ugly or beautiful, and know that God is using this to draw me to himself . this moment is a gift of grace, of perfect love .
it's a simple concept, this living with open hands and giving thanks . but my flesh knows that this is no simple or easy task . yes, when i am walking through sunlight soaked woods and my body feels so alive it is easy to name the grace and thank God for it . but what about when it's 1:46 am and i still have homework and my head is pounding and all i want to do is sleep ? i can see God through the eyes of the children i serve, but what about when one of them is gone for weeks and we don't know if she is okay ? grace is obviously saturating the afternoon of bible study in this coffee shop, but what about the afternoon of struggling with my sin yet again, the afternoon of feeling less-than, not-enough, and hopeless ? where is the beauty and grace in the hard times that come all too often ?
i just don't see it . i don't understand .
but you know, i'm realizing that i don't have to understand . nowhere in the bible does God promise to explain himself to us or ask our opinion before he carries out his sovereign & perfect plan . all God asks us to do is trust him . he promises his character to be the same, and that is enough . Jesus never changes, and he loves us immensely, enough to die and enough to give us life and blueberry muffins .
and really, that is enough . in Christ, i am enough . in Christ, i am never hopeless because he himself is my hope . i don't see the story that God is writing today, but who am i to call it not good ? who am i to say that he should write it differently ? i don't know what a different story of today would mean, so i'm living with open hands and letting the One who does see and know all control everything . living a life of open hands is hard, i won't stand here and tell you that it's easy . but a life of open hands is so, so worth it . opening the hands lets go of bitterness, of the things and the sin that i've been clutching for far to long . opening the hands means i am ready to receive every good gift from my Father . and he gives such good gifts .
so yes, although the past few weeks have been discouraging and i've felt the life sucked from me, today is a new day . there are new mercies and new graces . my God is still the same, and He is giving me today as a gift of grace and love . i get to serve my King today, and i'm serving Him with hands spread open to receive whatever he gives .
the sight of open hands everywhere reminds me of what i am so quick to forget : the only way to truly live is to live with hands open to freely, gratefully receive whatever God chooses to give . the only way to find real and lasting joy is to see God in this very moment, whether i call it ugly or beautiful, and know that God is using this to draw me to himself . this moment is a gift of grace, of perfect love .
it's a simple concept, this living with open hands and giving thanks . but my flesh knows that this is no simple or easy task . yes, when i am walking through sunlight soaked woods and my body feels so alive it is easy to name the grace and thank God for it . but what about when it's 1:46 am and i still have homework and my head is pounding and all i want to do is sleep ? i can see God through the eyes of the children i serve, but what about when one of them is gone for weeks and we don't know if she is okay ? grace is obviously saturating the afternoon of bible study in this coffee shop, but what about the afternoon of struggling with my sin yet again, the afternoon of feeling less-than, not-enough, and hopeless ? where is the beauty and grace in the hard times that come all too often ?
i just don't see it . i don't understand .
but you know, i'm realizing that i don't have to understand . nowhere in the bible does God promise to explain himself to us or ask our opinion before he carries out his sovereign & perfect plan . all God asks us to do is trust him . he promises his character to be the same, and that is enough . Jesus never changes, and he loves us immensely, enough to die and enough to give us life and blueberry muffins .
and really, that is enough . in Christ, i am enough . in Christ, i am never hopeless because he himself is my hope . i don't see the story that God is writing today, but who am i to call it not good ? who am i to say that he should write it differently ? i don't know what a different story of today would mean, so i'm living with open hands and letting the One who does see and know all control everything . living a life of open hands is hard, i won't stand here and tell you that it's easy . but a life of open hands is so, so worth it . opening the hands lets go of bitterness, of the things and the sin that i've been clutching for far to long . opening the hands means i am ready to receive every good gift from my Father . and he gives such good gifts .
so yes, although the past few weeks have been discouraging and i've felt the life sucked from me, today is a new day . there are new mercies and new graces . my God is still the same, and He is giving me today as a gift of grace and love . i get to serve my King today, and i'm serving Him with hands spread open to receive whatever he gives .
