This is not just an enthused husband talking…it’s the truth. The whole truth. So help me God!
Some days I wonder where my wife keeps her angel wings. You don’t see them on her. But, if you know her, even a smidgen…you know they are there.
When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday (celebrated last Thursday, as her annual clock ticked 71…), her response humbled me…deeply. She said she wanted to help me finish a l..o…n….g standing project that seemed to have no end…the complete retooling of my office and especially my filing system that had accumulated piles of information over the past several decades.
Me: “What?”
“Seriously?”
“But this is your birthday, not mine.”
“What do you want to do for/with your birthday?”
Her: “You asked me what I wanted.”
“That is what I want.”
We had talked of doing other things for her birthday weekend. Daily we did do some things away from our home, where we also office. But I’m still shaking my head at her grace-filled selflessness in holding firm with, “This is what I want.”
So…for the past five days we’ve tackled the piles, the files, and the results are stunning, producing some weary, but welcome smiles. At this moment (…way early on this Tuesday morning…could not sleep…but that’s a story of deep meaning and impact for tomorrow’s blog post…a story that needs to be told from a split-second event that took place this past Sunday afternoon…) my home office space has never been more organized, decluttered, efficient than it is at this moment in time.
This wife of mine is a master of space and function organization. Talk about a gift of caring opportunity. She just knows, once it’s understood what stays and what goes, where things will best reside. It is a gift…….of magnitude.
We make a fairly good team. She has a function eye. I’ve a design eye. Some moments we drive each other nuts. BUT…….I trust her function sense. She trusts my design sense. In the end it creates a sense that welcomes freedom, and life, via an active, deep grace.
Grace………..
One of the items recovered in recent weeks has been a book titled Spoken Worship by Gerard Kelly. It is sub-titled, Living Words for Personal and Public Prayer. Each poem is a prayer that rearranges the soul with each reading.
What is expressed within? Priceless…just as life-giving grace has been part of my wife’s extreme grace, love and creative care…this poem…this prayer begins this day.
All this is shared from my olde heart that is over-full of thanks as this day begins. Humbled by such love from her. Humbled because of our Triune God’s love through her. It is our God whom I thank for her…now and forever!!!
This Grace…
This grace we have been given is enough.
When the mountains set before us
won’t move by faith
until by faith we start to climb,
it is enough.
When our cry for heaven’s miracles
rings hollow,
like a doorbell howling through an empty house,
it is enough.
When from our waiting rooms of weakness
we say yes
to pressing on,
it is enough.
When we have reached the end of our energies
and face the end of ourselves
but can’t yet see the end of our task,
it is enough.
Enough
to know that you have loved us.
Enough
that we are called before all time.
Enough
that every fingerprint is valued.
Enough
that you remember every name.
So we will embrace this grace
and turn our hearts to face grace.
Loosening the locks
on our personal space,
we’ll make each home a place of grace.
We’ll drink from your wells
’til we’re wasted on grace;
we’ll speak out your words
’til our tongues taste of grace.
And we’ll live to love your laws
until our lives are laced with grace.
Down dark and dingy alleys
we will chase grace.
We will hold as something precious every trace of grace.
We will celebrate and consecrate this grace,
because this grace we have been given
is enough.
...the view out my window of my "reborn" office space, with a new stand-up writing desk, from which I've been getting more done in the several weeks of having it, than ever sitting down at the old desk...
...Story #2 will be shared tomorrow...
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