You, with Your own hand, drove out the nations, but our ancestors You planted. You afflicted peoples, but them You set free. For not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your face, for You delighted in them. (2-3) ESV
Single-handedly you weeded out the godless from the fields and planted us. How you sent those people packing, but gave us a fresh start. We didn't fight for this land! We didn't work for it! It was a gift! You gave it, smiling as you gave it, delighting as you gave it. THE MESSAGE
He put the sunglasses on the top of the car. I told him not to because he might forget them when we drove away. But my son was confident he would remember because it had taken him a long time to save up the hundred dollars his Oakley's had cost. He was a legend in his own mind as he walked the campus of his elementary school after class, glasses attached to his face as he strutted to the car waiting as if it were his limo. I, of course, the driver privileged to sit next to the stud riding shotgun. He did love those glasses.
"How was school today?" I asked as we drove the busy freeway home.
"Fine." That was always his answer....unless it was: "Won't you pleeeaassee homeschool me?"
Our conversation was cut short by a shriek. Almost a wail. Grief so self-evident it almost took my breath away.
"I left my glasses on the top of the car!" My son screamed this! Absolutely devastated. "Mom, we have to go back!"
Well, of course we did. But we were fifteen minutes away from the glasses we had probably executed with our very own tires. "They are either gone or crunched by now, Will." Hated to tell him the truth.
"Let's pray." I must admit I had little faith, but we asked God to let them be there, unscathed, waiting for us like an obedient dog when we pulled back into the parking lot.
A long fifteen minute ride. Many, many "I'm so stupid's" later we rolled up to the parking place we had left. I wish I could say the Oakley's lay pristine, untouched and obedient there on the ground. However, crunched they were. To smithereens!
Crying. Loss. How could he have been so stupid! One hundred dollars was a lot of lawns mowed and chores done. Worked so hard. His macho gone with the shades, Will cried. Not just a little. More like he had lost a friend instead of his expensive personae.
What to do. All the way home I pondered. It really was his fault. Forgotten things on the tops of cars usually meet the same death. As he was crying his pain, I was thinking about how to stop this hurt for him. How to recapture what had been taken from him. You see, the grace of buying him a new pair of sunglasses (which I could afford in those days) outweighed the need to teach him this excruciating lesson. (Also, I am always losing my sunglasses or sitting on them...I pay $6.00 a pair for them on this account.) Besides. The lesson was already learned and he had no way of showing that without sunglasses to care for again.
Talked it over with Bill. And here is the thing. I could not wait to tell Will that we would buy him a new pair. It brought me so much joy, I cannot tell you! Not because he deserved them. But because he didn't! When Will saw them, he was ecstatic! Couldn't believe he had another pair.
"Mom, I'm going to take such good care of these! I promise!" Shades to face. Awesome again. And to this day (he is 28) he is oh-so-careful with his sunglasses. (I, on the other hand, am hopeless.)
There was something memorable about that occasion that makes me understand how God moves heaven and earth for His kids. Can't wait to show His love by bringing about the impossible....not just so we can be happy, but so He can beam His joy on us. That by His right hand, His mighty arm and the joy set before Him, He provides for us all that we do not deserve.
Single-handedly you weeded out the godless from the fields and planted us. How you sent those people packing, but gave us a fresh start. We didn't fight for this land! We didn't work for it! It was a gift! You gave it, smiling as you gave it, delighting as you gave it. THE MESSAGE
He put the sunglasses on the top of the car. I told him not to because he might forget them when we drove away. But my son was confident he would remember because it had taken him a long time to save up the hundred dollars his Oakley's had cost. He was a legend in his own mind as he walked the campus of his elementary school after class, glasses attached to his face as he strutted to the car waiting as if it were his limo. I, of course, the driver privileged to sit next to the stud riding shotgun. He did love those glasses.
"How was school today?" I asked as we drove the busy freeway home.
"Fine." That was always his answer....unless it was: "Won't you pleeeaassee homeschool me?"
Our conversation was cut short by a shriek. Almost a wail. Grief so self-evident it almost took my breath away.
"I left my glasses on the top of the car!" My son screamed this! Absolutely devastated. "Mom, we have to go back!"
Well, of course we did. But we were fifteen minutes away from the glasses we had probably executed with our very own tires. "They are either gone or crunched by now, Will." Hated to tell him the truth.
"Let's pray." I must admit I had little faith, but we asked God to let them be there, unscathed, waiting for us like an obedient dog when we pulled back into the parking lot.
A long fifteen minute ride. Many, many "I'm so stupid's" later we rolled up to the parking place we had left. I wish I could say the Oakley's lay pristine, untouched and obedient there on the ground. However, crunched they were. To smithereens!
Crying. Loss. How could he have been so stupid! One hundred dollars was a lot of lawns mowed and chores done. Worked so hard. His macho gone with the shades, Will cried. Not just a little. More like he had lost a friend instead of his expensive personae.
What to do. All the way home I pondered. It really was his fault. Forgotten things on the tops of cars usually meet the same death. As he was crying his pain, I was thinking about how to stop this hurt for him. How to recapture what had been taken from him. You see, the grace of buying him a new pair of sunglasses (which I could afford in those days) outweighed the need to teach him this excruciating lesson. (Also, I am always losing my sunglasses or sitting on them...I pay $6.00 a pair for them on this account.) Besides. The lesson was already learned and he had no way of showing that without sunglasses to care for again.
Talked it over with Bill. And here is the thing. I could not wait to tell Will that we would buy him a new pair. It brought me so much joy, I cannot tell you! Not because he deserved them. But because he didn't! When Will saw them, he was ecstatic! Couldn't believe he had another pair.
"Mom, I'm going to take such good care of these! I promise!" Shades to face. Awesome again. And to this day (he is 28) he is oh-so-careful with his sunglasses. (I, on the other hand, am hopeless.)
There was something memorable about that occasion that makes me understand how God moves heaven and earth for His kids. Can't wait to show His love by bringing about the impossible....not just so we can be happy, but so He can beam His joy on us. That by His right hand, His mighty arm and the joy set before Him, He provides for us all that we do not deserve.
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