Thank you for stopping by my blog.

I write day after day because I discover extraordinary lessons from ordinary life experiences. I record my visual portraits of everyday life filled with something sacred in hopes that my reflections might bring an insight that blesses my readers.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Sufficient and glorious grace.





Grace, just what my dull heart needed.


As I watch the twinkling Christmas lights across the neighborhood, it reminds me of the gift of grace.  Children delight in the new fallen snow and make pretend angels on the white blanket in their yard.  Neighbors reach out with cards, cookies, and calls of cheer.  They have forgotten their summer plight with weeds or noisy neighbor children. 
The world looks different during the holiday season.  People are smiling more, singing the carols that have lived in their hearts since childhood.  Sparkling eyes from the granddaughters remind me this season is truly magic and majestic.
Adult children return home to sniff the fragrance of the fresh evergreens and favorite recipes baking in the oven.  Stacks of frosted cookies remind them of their childhood.  Silver and red packages hold a mystery of what is to come on Christmas day.  Everyday has some precious memory of the past or that is being realized this day.
I call all this God’s grace.  I remember how unexpected His grace was on a sad and lonely day.  I understood His grace at the loss of my parents.  I embraced His grace when I first held my newborn sons.  I hunger for His grace more than for the roasting turkey, baked cookies, or seasonal cranberry recipes.  I see His grace as a white blanket that keeps me warm regardless of life’s turns and trials.  Because of God’s grace, I see with new eyes this season the birth of Christ. I know that it is grace that lifted my dull heart into one of expectancy of the second coming.  For grace, I am thankful.