Two Glasses and a Bowl

Two glasses and a bowl.
 That's how many things one of my children broke this week.
He wasn't being wild or silly, just three accidents. Part of life.
Things being broken, messes being made, clean up and move on.
Sometimes if feels as we're moving from mess to mess.

This has been a messy week for us, not just because of the broken dishes, but because on Tuesday night we rushed my husband to the ER for what appeared to my untrained eye as a stroke.
PTL it wasn't, but those were some scary hours and days in the hospital. He was finally released last night around 7 and I've was so glad to leave that building in the rear view mirror as we drove home.
The Hubs has quite a bit of following up to do with the doctors and some recovery that needs to be at home, but he is HOME and we are blessed.

I sat in his hospital room day after day and as I was coming and going dropping children off here and there (bless those friends/ grandparents that helped out with childcare) as you can imagine there were lots of prays of all kinds swirling through my head, but one of the major ones that kept being repeated was 'What do want us to learn in all of this? Show us Lord!'

Please, hear me when I say that I didn't have to ask him if he was there in the middle of turbulence, because He's shown me time and time again that He is the shelter in the storm-so I KNEW where to run! This isn't our families first ER/ medical crisis. I knew He was there.  But don't feel bad if in your struggles you've got to ask Him if He's there! I've prayed that before too. Go ahead and pray it, "Are you there, do you see us struggling down here?" He'll show up and He'll show off for you!

But, this time that wasn't my prayer, it might be again some other time but this time I knew He was there from the beginning.

The answer to my particular prayer this time started coming to me about Thursday and Friday (with more to come, with reflection, in the weeks to follow) but what I began to feel those Lord saying to me was this:
"Remember those broken glasses and bowl?" which quite frankly seemed like  a weird answer to my prayer of what do you want us to learn from this. . .but never the less that is what kept coming back into my heart. .So, I said, "Yes I remember the broken glasses and bowl."
"Sometimes, life is messy. Sometimes, things break. You were going to do things one way only to find out that you can't and you'll have to change your plans. You may not have been doing anything wrong, it just happened. Part of life.
This too is part of life. Quit gripping things/people/lists so tightly. Maybe that drink you'll get won't come to you in the way you planned, but you'll still get it. It might take longer than you planned, might not be as pretty on the outside, but what's on the inside will be exactly the same.
Plans change, vessels to make the plans happen change. And that's OK, because I never change.
Do you hear me? I never change."

So, a week that was going to happen one way, turns out to happen another. A summer takes a turn not expected. Do we throw a fit? Do we cry and carry on? Or do we say, that's part of life, but that Creator of that life hasn't changed one bit and that's who we choose to focus on.

I pray that is what I do, what I teach my children to do. To bend and flow with the twists and curves of life with grace and peace, knowing that Jesus has it all together even when all I see is the mess that was made of my plans and to keep my focus clearly on Jesus.

To those reading this that prayed for us this week-thank you never seems like enough, but Thank You from the bottom of our hearts!
To those in the middle of some chaos of their own, cling to Jesus, He's the only rock that cannot be moved-He'll be your peace when there is none.

Blessings,
Angie