So Much More than This
This is not this - No, it is so much more than this
One January morning (yes, my Christmas lights were still up) I'm sitting quietly taking in the Nativity. Pondering. So much to ponder. In the quiet of that holy morning, God was saying, there is so much more than THIS.
Truth be told, the Christmas story is not just a manger in a manure filled barn, it's a beautiful love story that promises life everlasting. It's a story of a Holy God that so loved unrighteous us that He gave up His Perfect Son so that everyone, everywhere would have the opportunity to experience the sweetest gifts of grace and mercy IF we choose Him.
This story continues to unfold in each of our journeys as God leads us from here to there, molding, shaping, and writing our stories. Stories, that in our limited human comprehension, we could never have written.
Farmer Dan and I were recently reminiscing and laughing at our story. He was 32 with 4 kiddos and I was 20 when we started dating - 34 and 22 (just out of college) when we got married. Talk about not having a clue to the so much more that was ahead!!!
Almost 33 years later, there were 30 people in our living room for Christmas and we were missing 2! Oh, how precious is our more! To the 4 originals we added a son and then in God's sense of humor, He blessed us with twin girls. Two years after the twins, the grandbabies began, and now enter the greats - 32 and counting!
Thirty some years ago I was an uptight, judgey, perfectionist who had impossible expectations with little grace. I saw misbehaviors as wrong without realizing the story behind the actions. I had the delusion that all households needed to operate like the one I grew up in. But God knew . . .
God knew this heart needed to learn:
- that love and grace trumps structure and rules.
- that people in difficult situations need my prayers not my spilling the tea. They are real people experiencing real pain and desperately need the love of Christ not idle chatter.
- that I cannot save anyone. BUT, I can love and live in a way that shows them Who can.
- that it is mine to pray and HIS to fix.
Oh, the beautiful pain of a Grace Filled Journey all because I agreed to go to a tractor pull on July 16, 1991, with a handsome Christian farmer that lived close to my family!
But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”I Corinthians 2:9
These word were taken from Isaiah 64:4. Later in verse 8, Isaiah penned these words: We are the clay, You are the Potter.
Only God can take a lump of dirt and mold it into something useful, beautiful, and beyond what our hearts could ever fathom.
Only the POTTER can form us into so much more by placing us in situations that stretch us beyond ourselves and into a life of utter dependance on HIM.
Marrying Farmer Dan was not about checking my boxes, it was putting me in the middle of a herd of people that God has used to show me what my heart needed - His sweet grace that changes everything!
Let the Potter mold your messy, chaotic lump into so much more ~
Blogger's Note: I will not be posting on social media. If these words in any way have touched your heart, please share with a friend.
Better have your box of tissues close by before you start reading this one. I have always loved the picture from your wedding, of you and Danny and the four oldest kiddos. Those smiles are so beautiful.
We are the clay, You are the potter. Your sharing with us your stretching helps us stretch better….thank you.
It takes a lot of reshaping to finally get to what God has in store for us! Just hang on for the ride! and praise God all the way.