To earth He came

Sitting next to my kindergartener in church is not always my favorite thing. But I do like it when he draws, when I see him inspired by the banners and the Word and the grace around him.

I remember this day, when he wrote words I really, truly needed to hear.

Baptized into thy name most holy- we are, even MOM is. The frazzled mom who can't get the kids lined up in the pew without losing her patience, with the daughter with tangled hair, with her own tangled heart.

Sitting in the sanctary, words and images swirl around us, Words, and we take them in, breathe them in, let them forgive, renew, and lead us.  And the brother kicks the other brother, and I force a patient-looking smile, hoping it covers up my clenched fist of a heart. 

And even that heart recieves a shower of grace and mercy through the Word.

And I pick up the little one, and we begin to pray together. And just as gratitude begins to melt my heart, he tries to feed me my own hair while I am speaking.  

And mama spits in church.

This God, he lifts up my head, but he does not lift me up out of the struggles of this life.  Instead, He comes here, with us, in the earthly, normal, frustrating things. He's here in the gray areas, here in the daily exasperation, here in the mama heart that wants to rest but has so much to do she doesn't know where to start.  

The sanctuary is a holy place, but He is with us in all places.

And so the little boy's mind wanders, and he stops drawing the church banners.  And he draws this:

That's a turkey.  And daddy is shooting the turkey... while he's smoking his pipe.

Daddy is actually up in the pulpit at the moment, but this little boy knows his father does other things when he's not preaching. 

And though it seems so out of place, I smile, because God is there, too.

God is God with us, and more importantly- thanks be to Jesus'- He is God FOR us.

God around us and in us, before and behind us, covering us with HIS righteousness and mercy.

And so what is there left for us to do but this?

Live in God's grace. 

In the woods, in the kitchen, in the sactuary, by the bedside, at the mall. 

Live in God's grace

in the knowledge of His presence

for us.