Sometimes each breath feels such a gift that I can hardly take it in. When setting the table takes me back twenty five years to playing house with plastic and mud and imagining my someday. When grinding pepper into the marinade brings simple delight and the kids outside laugh and run with bare feet and happy. When I realize I’m living the life I always wanted to live. Those times, inhaling the gift of this very life brings even more life.
And there are those other times when the family member calls with shaky voice and says it’s cancer and you want to both reach through the phone with comfort arms and sink under the table at the same time. And you look at those dishes you set the table with just last night and they just look like dishes. And you can’t remember the recipe to the marinade. And the kids are screaming in the backyard and you want to yell, Don’t you know about cancer? If you knew, you would behave! But you don’t yell that, because the fact is, you are so grateful they don’t know about cancer. And you want to protect the innocence of their somedays for as long as you can.
Grace is the arm that extends the gifts of the ordinary, and the same arm that holds you tight when you hear the news. This grace gift is undeserved and extravagant. And you realize that cancer and ground pepper and bare feet are all a part of this mosaic life. It wasn’t meant to be this way but it is, and we live it, every breathe we get. Because of grace.
Day 11 is a Good One!
Mrs.B´s last [type] ..Goodbye
Oh I LOVE this. The balance between the two is so hard to articulate and you did it well, and the images! The pepper! the marinade, the children and the cancer…it’s all a mosaic.
I think you nailed it. HARD. With a HAMMER.
JoAnn´s last [type] ..Because I Dont Own A Foghorn
Thanks JoAnn!
Wow, Emily. I am behind in the blog reading and just logged on to see this. We found out last Thursday my Mum has a tumour. Very thankful we found out today its operable and hasn’t spread. But wow, this is so true, and very encouraging. I am loving this series.
Emma´s last [type] ..just everyday things
So sorry to hear about your Mom, Emma. What a relief that they can operate – still, I shock nonetheless, and not something anyone ever wants to hear.
Thank you for your kind words about the series!
I feel like a broken record saying how much I need and love this.
Thank you.
oh how i know this grace. been in the same scene with moments of hurt. what a reminder that Grace comes down even when chaos and confusion ensues.
i am reminded of my dad who I lost to cancer this past summer. my daughter watered the plants yesterday and she said it helps her keep grandpa’s memory alive because they watered together. this is grace. unfailing, lavished grace.
Melissa´s last [type] ..DIY Printable- Name Cards
Grace is the common thread that runs through every detail of our lives. The majestic and the mundane are all connected by beautiful grace.
Thank you for this.
Eyvonne´s last [type] ..Why do old people sing about heaven
Thank God for His unfailing grace…I, too, have found that the words of this life intertwine to make a beautiful tapestry called life…the life He has purposed for me!
allison morrison´s last [type] ..An organized mess
Emily, thank you! I’ve been thinking a lot about mercy lately. But somehow I think I’ve forgotten the grace! “The arm that extends the gifts of the ordinary, and the same arm that holds you tight when you hear the news.” God reminded me with your words. Thank you.
Brianna´s last [type] ..Unexpected Expectations
This is soooo true. Thank you for articulating it so beautifully.
I love this series! Every day I can’t wait to check for my dose of grace.
I was praying for the next song I would sing when your post with Grace Flows Down hit my inbox. [big grin here]
I think we should keep grace going through November, too… hint, hint! LOL
Joy´s last [type] ..the difference a day can make
Your posts on grace have been of great service to me. Taking a few moments each day to celebrate and remember this most precious gift and be reminded of ways to pass it on. Thank you.
Carol´s last [type] ..Work has begun
His grace is sufficient. We know that to be true in the everyday gifts, and in the life-altering moments. Although nonsensical, I notice the truth Grace easier in the hardest of times, and often need to be reminded of it in the everyday. Your writing helps me with that. This is so good.
dawn´s last [type] ..so much to say- so little time
And His grace gets you through that same cancer that takes my sis in law, a young mom of three, at just 34…HIS grace is sufficient…through it all.
Jen@Balancing Beauty and Bedlam´s last [type] ..The Asymmetrical Sweater- Frugal Fashionista
WOW. That’s all I can say. Simply, ‘WOW.’ There are some blogs I read and I say, “Oh yeah. I get it. Great point.” Today I read it and felt totally floored. It’s too beautiful and peaceful and chaotic. I love it.
Nikole Hahn´s last [type] ..Life Illuminated
Just the ticket today. Thanks friend.
stacey´s last [type] ..Multitude Monday
Another breath of fresh air from you, my friend. Thank you for reminding me to savor; and extend grace.
New Every Morning´s last [type] ..My Take on TV this Week
Just happend upon your blog today. Your post on grace moved me to write. I know about all the things you spoke of, especially cancer. I lost my mom a year ago to a cancerous brain tumor. Sometimes grace is all I can depend on when I start to sink into that place of sorrow. You said it so perfectly, cancer is part of my mosiac, whether I want it or not. I plan to follow your grace journey and be inspired.
deb´s last [type] ..FALL
Grace flows down. That’s right. So often we want to look for it coming up from within us, as if we could manufacture it for ourselves. But it must flow down first. And after it flows down, of course, there is within us that Spirit whence it comes. . . so then it can flow from us. Streams of living water.
Thank you, God, for being the Source.
Thank you, Emily, for being such a wonderful aqueduct.
Wowsers. I just found your blog through your sister’s blog.
I’m enjoying Grace oh so much these days. I’m climbing or rather being pulled out of the black hole of major depression. God has not left me. Even when I thought He did. He has been there all along and the Grace and the Faith He has gifted to me is unfathomable.
Praises to God! For grace. For faith. For pepper grinders, bare feet and you.
Thank you, Emily, for your blog.
Denise
That last paragraph? Beautiful and heartbreaking but most of all, true. I think I live this way a lot of days, begging for grace to see the gifts and grace to hold me upright as I wade through the mire that life brings.
I pray grace for you and yours as you wade through these days.
Scooper´s last [type] ..The Perfectionists Guide to Domestic Imperfection
Thanks for the post. Learning to see God’s grace in the ordinary and expect his grace in the extra-ordinary of my life.
simply beautiful.