now is the time
Every friday, I drive the kids to Miss Ping's house. They tramp across her living room to the back porch where unnumberable canvases and sheaths of paper have been transformed by color. They sit, side by side, along a row of tables facing an easel where this quiet, sunny Chinese woman teaches them to paint, sketch, create.
I watch from behind the class, in wonder at how silent and attentive my two rambunctious kids become when they pick up a pastel stick. Today, they are drawing a cat and my girl's eyes are shining. She cannot stop smiling and each time she sees me watching her, she waves and points to her work in progress. An hour later, they are adding fuschia flowers to the background. Though they draw as Miss Ping draws, each of their pictures has their own personal touch. My redhead draws his cat's eyes round and bold, while my girl's kitten has smaller, more tender peepers. His flower pot has a camouflouge pattern, while hers rests on pink and blue.
At home, I carefully tape the pictures up to my glass cabinets. Each time I walk into the room, I am met with these bursts of color and joyful expression.
Every act of true creation reveals His glory.
He is the Creator and we co-create with Him.
In creating, we experience joy in the present, in the process. I am so inclined towards planning, agonizing over what might be, worrying about how things will work out-- that I miss His grace, His gifts, in the present. What a gift it is to be content with the now, leaving the future and the outcome to the Only One who has the power and foresight to hold it and shape it perfectly.
A baby stretches out her limbs inside me, creating a wave of movement along my belly. In seven weeks, she will come to us, beginning her life here outside the womb. But for now, I am content to be a haven for her, to nurture her and quietly prepare my heart for her coming (though I still am beginning to feel very ready to have her come sooner!).
In the meantime, choosing gratitude for the now is a daily discipline, one that I am still quite young and weak in, yet growing. Learning that gratitude is much more than just a nicety, a social grace. It is the framework from which all of our perspective on life hangs upon. No wonder Paul exhorts us to be thankful in all circumstances. It creates the lens through which we view ourselves, our marriage, our families and friends-- even God.
Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving thanks.
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
#145 small hands grasping paintbrushes
#146 smiles
#147 unexpected gifts
#148 new cell phone!
#149 daily calls from overseas
#150 emmy
#151 coupons
#152 lesson planning
#153 son's excitement about writing
#154 reading the Bible aloud together
#155 mama oak
#156 de-cluttering
#157 choosing a name
#158 spiritual birthdays
#159 clean floors
#160 a new painting
I watch from behind the class, in wonder at how silent and attentive my two rambunctious kids become when they pick up a pastel stick. Today, they are drawing a cat and my girl's eyes are shining. She cannot stop smiling and each time she sees me watching her, she waves and points to her work in progress. An hour later, they are adding fuschia flowers to the background. Though they draw as Miss Ping draws, each of their pictures has their own personal touch. My redhead draws his cat's eyes round and bold, while my girl's kitten has smaller, more tender peepers. His flower pot has a camouflouge pattern, while hers rests on pink and blue.
At home, I carefully tape the pictures up to my glass cabinets. Each time I walk into the room, I am met with these bursts of color and joyful expression.
Every act of true creation reveals His glory.
He is the Creator and we co-create with Him.
In creating, we experience joy in the present, in the process. I am so inclined towards planning, agonizing over what might be, worrying about how things will work out-- that I miss His grace, His gifts, in the present. What a gift it is to be content with the now, leaving the future and the outcome to the Only One who has the power and foresight to hold it and shape it perfectly.
A baby stretches out her limbs inside me, creating a wave of movement along my belly. In seven weeks, she will come to us, beginning her life here outside the womb. But for now, I am content to be a haven for her, to nurture her and quietly prepare my heart for her coming (though I still am beginning to feel very ready to have her come sooner!).
In the meantime, choosing gratitude for the now is a daily discipline, one that I am still quite young and weak in, yet growing. Learning that gratitude is much more than just a nicety, a social grace. It is the framework from which all of our perspective on life hangs upon. No wonder Paul exhorts us to be thankful in all circumstances. It creates the lens through which we view ourselves, our marriage, our families and friends-- even God.
Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving thanks.
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
#145 small hands grasping paintbrushes
#146 smiles
#147 unexpected gifts
#148 new cell phone!
#149 daily calls from overseas
#150 emmy
#151 coupons
#152 lesson planning
#153 son's excitement about writing
#154 reading the Bible aloud together
#155 mama oak
#156 de-cluttering
#157 choosing a name
#158 spiritual birthdays
#159 clean floors
#160 a new painting
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