Irony Becomes Her

Young and Old

Tears filled my eyes as I wandered through the empty house--empty of people, brimming with meaning and memory. My grandparents are moving out of the home they've made a haven of love and comfort for 55 years. Even after months of cleaning and streamlining, threads of them still entwine with every object in the house.

"Without Me you can do nothing." A simple wall-hanging reminded me of the principle by which they have lived these wonderful decades. They seem to have come to terms with it and moved on with life, serving and loving in such a way that anyone may safely take their example.

But I'm certain they cannot have very easily become such efficacious vessels of grace; years of conscious obedience and mutual submission have resulted in what they and their house have come to represent. They are love, but not because they are good people. They are love because they know Him without whom we can do nothing. And knowing Him like they do takes a lot of time.

One of the ways to know Him, though, is to look with His eyes at His most precious possessions. My baby niece came over today, too, and I met her for the first time. She has had health irregularities from the womb, but it was confirmed today that she should function normally with her one healthy kidney. The fact that she is alive and beautiful beyond description is an expression of the depths of His grace.

She slept throughout their two-hour visit, moving her mouth as she twitched and fidgeted in her dreams. Her toddler sisters shrieked and carried on, wrapped up in their small world; but who knows whether theirs, or perhaps hers, is bigger than ours? Maybe, as Wordsworth suggests, we have forgotten the eternity of our previous life in our obsession with the temporality of this one. Either way, there is something magic about her, the freshness of her Creator's stamp.

May she grow old into a vessel of grace like her great-grandparents. And please, Lord, me too! Me too.

posted by Lynn @ 8:45 PM