The Rescuer

With final exams coming in less than a week, a messy house, and nothing packed or prepared for NJ, what better time than to take my messy messy thoughts and attempt to put them on the blog? After all, as my good friend Donnie says, "why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?" 

Why indeed? 

This week has been all about the countdown. Owen cried in my lap this morning about having to leave in a week and how Emma Grace and Isaac can't come with him. So I did what every good parent does and tried to put a positive spin on a five week hospital stay far away from everything he holds dear.

The tricks I pulled out of my bag?

-but Aunt Sarah Ellen is coming the same day we are!!

-there will be an indoor pool!!

-you'll get to ride in your new stroller a lot!

-there's a lake there! Remember when you played in the lake?!

To which he replied, 

"there's a lake here too, Mom."

Touche son.

Touche.

It's hard to turn a crappy situation into rainbows with a child who sees everything as black and white. He is not easily snowed.

But he is excited and in love with his new stroller. He tells anyone who will listen about it. He loves loves loves it and wanted to ride in it in Target the other night. Target. It is highly possible that we have created a monster.

The older two are adjusting to the impending separation. There have been some tears this week, but my hope is that they will be so busy with school and friends that they won't even notice we're gone? Sounds reasonable, right? And we're also spoiling them in an attempt to assuage any fears. After dinner the other night, they asked to split a milkshake? Yes kids, suck down that sugary treat. And next week when you're bummed that Mom and Owen are gone? You best remember.........we let you have that milkshake.

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.
Parenting at its finest.

Speaking of parenting at its finest, my dad sent me this sermon this week. And wow. It was all about trying to see Jesus. And this part really resonated with me:

Sixth, if “we want to see Jesus,” there is
suffering involved. I hate that.
The second part of the Table shows us
suffering. The cup is his blood, and
blood is pain, blood is suffering, blood is
death.
And that's WHERE HE IS, where people
suffer. So that's where we have to go to
see him. Didn't he say, if you fed the
hungry, visited the sick, it was doing
those things to him? So if we avoid the
sick, avoid the hungry, then WHOM are
we avoiding?
How will we see him if we don't want to
go where he goes?
If any man wants to come after me,
let him deny himself, take up his
cross and follow me.
That is where he went after the cup -- to
the cross. A disciple is not above his
teacher.

Ugh. Couldn't we just go to church?

Some of you are almost laughing, except
it isn't funny. Here I am talking about
"if" suffering is involved, and whether we
want to go there or not, and you're
already THERE.
You’re LIVING there, in suffering that is,
and you WISH TO GOD that you could
live somewhere else. It's not a theory.
You're hurting now.
Debilitating illness, the ravages of age,
unfair death of a loved one, emotional
pain, injustice all around you. Lost your 
job, lost your house. You are hurting
now, you don't understand, and it's not
fair, and it's not SUPPOSED to be this
way.
There is good news and strange news.
Through the suffering of Christ came
forgiveness of sins. If we suffer along
with him, if our suffering is like this, 
what does that mean?
....................
We want to give you Jesus, not hell.
I am sure some of you have more than a
taste of hell in this life.
We believe Jesus rescues us. From the
hell of this world, and the next.
Rescue. "It's what he does, and it's all
he does, and he will not stop." 
-Mike Tucker

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in our own suffering and forget that there was someone out there who suffered far greater than we do. Someone who suffered so that ultimately, at the end of this life, our suffering can end.  We may have "lost" our house, we may have illness, we may have to work hard at our marriage in these trying times, we may have to try to explain hard things to young children, but if all this brings us closer to seeing Him? To seeing his miracles? To being a part of his rescue?

Well dang.
That makes me pretty grateful.

Thanks Dad for the much needed reminder.

After all, "life is like a box of chocolates.

You never know what you're gonna get?"

But we do know one thing.

We can be confident of one thing:

"Rescue. It's what he does, and it's all he does, and he will not stop."

So as we pack our bags and prepare for change, we can take hope with us. Hope that through it all, we will see Jesus. We'll pack that hope right in the suitcase and carry it with us and pull it out when the going gets tough. And if we lose that hope or forget about it or leave it zipped up in the suitcase, I'm sure our friends will remind us that it is there. It exists.

Because our friends and our family are awesome like that.

So basically, what I'm trying to say in my messy jumbled up brain is this:

Life is messy.
Owen loves his stroller.
The bigs are adjusting.
We have good friends.
We have awesome parents.
We have each other.
We have Jesus.

What more could you need?

The End.