FINDING GRATEFUL: 2013

You brought Grateful to my doorstep, Lord, and You left it there for me to find.

I stepped over it, and around, for many a day.

One day I wasn't looking, and I rounded a corner to find it standing in my path and staring me straight through in the heart.

You, Lord, transplanted me into the midst of another sea. I was determined to just start building my survival raft, wait for the storm, and then hang on tight.

But the place You led me is wholly different. This place beats Your heartbeat, possesses Your eyes - eyes which see that which You see; they looked, and what they saw was me.

Me.
Just me.
Only me.
Alone in the dark.

They came to me, and they reached out to care for the wounds they intuited. They sensed my uneasiness to not anchor too quickly. They did no harm.

They offered friendship.
And there were no strings.

They offered help.
And it was without motive.

They offered quiet to let me be.
To just rest.

They surrounded me with unbeknownst silent hedges of lips to Your ear, Lord, whispers to Heaven. They gave me space,
and time,
and time,
and time,
and smiles.

Lord, I thought You plunged me into a sea - the one where I would certainly be lost once again.

Instead, You have surrounded me with women who are me.

I am them and they are me.

You gave me women who have traveled my road. You gave me women who knew how to trod gently and tenderly into this garden and slowly water this dehydrated heart in order that, I would not just be, rather that I would thrive within this new and unfamiliar soil with assurance and joy.

I see that I am not alone and cold in a lost and lonely sea; I've been placed exactly where I need to be - with my feet on solid ground, in the middle of a beautiful, mature, lush garden.

You brought me Gratitude, and laid it at my doorstep.

FINDING GRATEFUL

10/22/13

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10/17/13

The Mandate