Surprising Grace

There are moments in life when hard stuff seems to come in bunches. These past few weeks have been like this. Our church is facing challenges. Then health stuff in the form of stomach flu for Steve and I and then the worst sinus infection/cold that I ever remember getting for me, requiring antibiotics, which I am still on. I am usually never sick. Is that God’s way of saying it is time for a vacation?

This week-end we were in the Columbus, Ohio, area for me to do our 21 year old niece Jennifer’s gravesite service. She dropped dead with no warning on Steve’s birthday 1/29. I officiated at her funeral on 2/4 and the family asked me to come back on 6/6to commit her ashes, along with her dad’s ashes. Dwight, Steve’s older brother, died of cancer 10 years ago on Easter Sunday and his wife’ Carol had held on to his ashes until then. His birthday was on 6/5. Carol felt she was now ready to let go, so that we could bury Dwight’s ashes along with Jennifer’s. We got to the cemetery in Pataskala Saturday late morning, with a bunch of family and friends gathered, only to find out that nothing was ready. The plot was not marked. There was no hole dug and no one from the funeral home or the cemetery to greet us. Inquiring phone calls remained fruitless till after we decided to proceed, hole or no hole. After the service we found out that a miscommunication had occurred and that the funeral home/cemetery had us down for July 6 instead of June 6! Carol had to go home with the urn that day. Not the way it was supposed to be…

Then on Sunday morning I find a voice mail on my cell phone from the husband of Sara, our church secretary, announcing that she had died in her sleep during the night. She had just had cancer surgery over the Memorial Day week-end. We had all thought that things had gone well. So well in fact that Sara said she felt good and she wanted to come back to work! And she did for a couple of days against my better counsel.

Several weeks back, we got a call from the new owners of Steve’s boyhood home in Pickerington, OH. They had tracked us down through the internet and wanted to hear more about the house and stories associated with it. Since we were going to be nearby for the gravesite service, Steve told them we could stop by. They invited us to an early dinner at 2 pm.

Frankly, visiting these folks, Sunday afternoon, after hearing about Sara’s death and still battling this sinus infection/cold was the last thing I wanted to do. But Steve was so excited at the prospect of seeing the inside of the house he had lived in from age 5 till he graduated from High School in 1973, and sharing with these people and seeing what they had/were going to do to the house, that I did not want to disappoint him and I decided that staying away mopping would not help anybody anyway.

This is when God’s grace totally blew me – us - away. We had stopped by Home Depot to pick up a planter to bring with us as a gift.

I carried the plant with me and as soon as our hostess opened the door, she greeted us by hugging us and proceeded to talk to us as if we had been friends forever. While I was surprised at getting hugged by a total stranger, there was nothing forced about any of it and she made us feel like family. No airs, no pretense, just genuine friendliness.

Steve’s youngest brother and his wife and 9 years old daughter had been invited too and they joined us shortly thereafter. They were greeted in the same warm manner. Steve and I had thought of only staying just long enough to not be rude and his brother Tom and family thought they would just come for a Coke. Next thing we know, we are helping set up the table outside on the patio and carrying food out and helping ourselves to some pop and ice tea. We all ended up staying till 8:30 pm that night and Jane and Sam (the new owners) acted like they were genuinely sorry to see us leave. We exchanged email addresses and phone no. and I do hope we stay in touch. I heard stories after stories of growing up and good times in this house and heard about what had changed and what had not. We walked all over the large backyard and along the creek at the back of the house. We saw every room in the house. Jane and Sam and their 15 years old daughter Sophie were the most hospitable folks I ever remember meeting. We found out common interests etc. Several of us mentioned afterward that this was in fact a God thing. It felt that way as we were visiting and eating great food – the best homemade chocolate cake! - and enjoyed gracious, unforced company. Turns out Jane and Sam are Christians, Catholics. But not overbearing just genuinely caring folks. She is a former teacher, turned nurse. He has a long title I can’t recall but it has to do with medical research.

The company, the great food, the memories shared felt like a healing balm and a Godly embrace. It was as God were saying, “I know that things have been a little rough lately but I am here and I love you. You will be OK.”

Stuck in my head

I have a tendency to get stuck in my head. If I am not careful I can get overly cerebral. I want to analyze stuff too much at times. I find myself doing this in times of stress in particular. I get very physically and mentally active and I retreat in my head and I stuff my emotions. God stopped me in my tracks with that this week. It took an image in a devotional publication that I love called Alive Now. It is a publication of the Upper Room which helps me surrender to God and helps me get out of my head. The May/June issue is written by the folks, both clergy and lay, from our Indiana Conference. Deals with change and the difficulty of change and the resource we have in God. On page 17 there is a picture of cracked rocks and from the cracks come out green leaves and tiny purple flowers. I found myself with tears in my eyes looking at this picture. I was surprised by that. Again, I started asking myself why I felt that way and I started analyzing: Let’s see, I feel this way because this picture reminds me that in the dry moments of our lives, God can bring life. Well, this picture looks like something out of the parable of the sower… Stop! Get out of your head! Receive the picture as a gift to be cherished. Just let your heart be touched. Yeah… Thanks God.

Oh, another way I get out of my head is by reading Calvin and Hobbes. Why do we always have to be so grown-up and responsible!

PS: The picture herewith is not the picture in Alive Now but it is something like that.

Friendship and Grace

Friendship is a gift and grace is undeserved love. I have been on the receiving end of both love and grace, especially these past two weeks. A friend is someone who loves you even when you don’t feel like you deserve it and when you are weird. People who know me best probably would say I am weird all the time. My significant other tells me that – in all fun and love.
God showed up through a couple of friends recently when I really needed to hear I am loved even when I am weird. You guys know who you are. Thanks. Love you back.

Do you have someone in your life who loves you like that?