Dogs, babies, chocolate...and other graces!

                                A little food for weekend thought:

     One of my favorite pictures of Moses--with precious Huntley (dressed up for trick-or-treatin'!) the son of dear, dear friends, Jessica and Hunt:

     Thank You Lord, again, for sweet, old Moses.  Moses--another example of one of the common gifts of God's grace in our lives.  Not a day--well, probably not an hour--goes by that we don't think of Moses and miss him.  But there are waaaaay more smiles now rather than tears.  Another reason for thanks to the Lord.  Grace.
     And then, just today, sweet Jessica and Huntley came by for a visit.  Huntley--grace, grace, grace!  What a joy an almost two year old is!  (And dear friends like Jessica?--grace squared!).  But our visitors came by with, as Jessica put it, "Some chocolate therapy."  O yes, more grace!  I put that fine therapy (I'm feeling better already) on the counter.  I realized after their visit that our chocolate therapy sat right in front of one of our favorite platters sitting on our kitchen counter--

"Be kind and compassionate to one another..." (Eph.4:32)

Pretty appropriate, huh?  Thank You, Lord, for the grace gifts of friendship, kindness, and compassion.  Thank You for friends who love us and care for us--even when we don't deserve it.  But that's the essence of grace isn't it?--God's undeserved, unearned favor showered upon us.  

     And thank You, Lord, that You allow us to share abroad to others that kindness and compassion which You poured out upon us so extravagantly in Jesus Christ.  

So in light of such amazing grace, a quote from Bob Goff that Janie just shared with me:

"Love dissipates fear; hope patches the holes in our dreams; grace won't fix our mistakes, it just won't memorize them."  

And one of my very favorites from G.K. Chesterton: 

“You say grace before meals. All right.  But I say grace before the concert and the opera.  And grace before the play and pantomime.  And grace before I open a book. And grace before sketching, painting, swimming fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing.  and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”  G.K.Chesterton

O Lord, help us to live by grace.  "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." (Eph.2:8-9)

It's all by grace and through grace--whether friendship or beloved pets or chocolate cake or good books...or "swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing."  

So we simply say, thank You, Father.  To God--the God of all grace--be the glory. 

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