Stories of Joy

There are places in life that we feel known.

That place in between wake and sleep where Randy pulls me toward him and time stops.

The familiar feel of my son's head in my lap,  where I close my eyes and forget that his legs now stretch to the end of the couch and heart reaches for the world that lies ahead of him.

The comfort of a friend's voice- the one that calls through the silence to your heart and brings you back.

In my relationship with Randy, it is a singular experience. I don't have anything that competes with the way that feels.

Any mother will tell you that nothing replaces the way each and every child feels as they melt into your arms. You can love, adore, treasure other children in significant ways ... but when it was the child that God birth into your heart and created in order to breathed life into your soul ... well, there's nothing that compares.

Friendships are unique. We run in and out of friendships our whole life.

And I have been blessed. Names and faces bring a smile to my face ... I can almost run through the alphabet I recon ... Annie, Barbara, Caroline, Debbie ... it is a list that Randy often points to and asks, "How does it happen that someone has so many friends, good friends?" And I do not know the answer except that I have a Heavenly Father that knows me better than I know myself and allows it. I have rarely had a moment in my life that I didn't have significant group of friends.

I am currently in a season where I don't have a 'group' of women I am currently connected with ... I have several. I have my teacher friends. I have my old church friends (sort of). I have my school friends. And then I have 3 significant relationships that I believe God has allowed for an eternal purpose.

One is a long time friend-I have known her since I was 14. She has loved me through many things. She prayed a prayer that God would bring someone into her life with whom she could share the excellent discipleship she had received in her walk with the Lord. When a broken 14 year old freshman walked into her classroom I'm sure she had no idea what the Lord was beginning. But 30 years later I pray that she can look back and see that, though she has no children of her own, I strive to be a living legacy to what she has taught me about Jesus!

One became a friend two years ago, but it seems to me that we have known each other all our lives. Our friendship started over a reluctant breakfast at Cracker Barrel, a vow from each of us to do only what God made us do(with the heel tracks in the pathway to prove it early on) ... pleading all the way that He wouldn't ask too much. Over a busted ankle and broken hearts, He asked for each of us to lay it all down before Him ... and often each other. Consistently He calls me to more than I think I am capable of in our friendship ... and just as constantly it is confirmed that I am safe and our friendship a treasure box He has granted! Meals and carpools and basketball games and cups of coffee can not compare to the treasure of how she sees more in me that I see in myself, loves my son in ways that I prayed for(and he loves her back) ... and we rarely have conversation of more than 5 minutes before we are talking about our Lord. I can't really explain how it works, but bumps and warts,  issues and all my junk exposed ... I think she sees me the way Jesus does ... and that speaks volumes about her spiritual eyes! 

One became a friend several years ago. A difficult circumstance (not of our making) caused us to go different directions for a while, but my new job and new church brought our paths back toward one another. I can not even begin to describe my joy when the Lord allowed our lives to intersect again. I knew when we served at 2 other churches together that we were supposed to 'do ministry' together in some way ... I'd  given up on ever happening ... and then we find ourselves at Northstar together. Wow ...

They call me to look to the Lord. They look deeply into my words, into my heart, into my life and into my eyes whenever possible

and see

past

the moment into motive
the circumstance into the story
the emotion into eternal.

Past the unraveling woe that Jesus refers to in Matthew 23 and into the woman behind the mask. They call me toward authenticity that can not exist in the midst of hypocrisy.

It is with much gratitude that I look to my Redeemer and thank Him for these gifts! Pictures of grace and mercy in my life that reflect the concept of unmerited favor!