Thursday, January 10, 2013

Mercy


The kids and I were at my parents cabin on the lake this summer.  We were taking a slow boat ride around the lake when my daughter noticed that the grass on one side of the lake was greener than on the other side.  And in total seriousness she said, “Hmm… I guess it is true…the grass is greener on the other side.”  Then my son said, “They must water it more.”  

My parents and I could hardly contain ourselves; we were in tears we were laughing so hard.  My kids were staring at us like we were crazy.  But it sure made for a memorable moment; one that I can go back too over and over again and still laugh about. 

I started a list a while back where I write down all these little things.  It is not a long list.  It could be longer if I would have started it when they were younger and if I were better at that kind of thing.  I am the mom who never remembers the camera, has barely any pictures, and doesn’t scrapbook what I have.  So, just like pictures my list gets forgotten sometimes too. 

But on those nights when I am not sure if I want to pull my own hair out or my kids, that list does not get forgotten.  I can sit down and those few little words take me back and I see my kids through a new set of eyes.  Ones that are not clouded by my frustration or irritability but instead are full of love, laughs, and tenderness.  It’s like watching them sleep. 

I am also reminded that God sees me differently.  He sees me through the blood of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  And friend, that makes me so grateful because without Jesus it is ugly.  I am reminded of Isaiah 43:24-25:

“You have not brought me fragrant calamus or pleased me with the fat from sacrifices.  Instead, you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your faults.  I – yes I alone – will blot out your sins for my sake and will never think of them again.”

Oh, what mercies the Father has lavished upon me.  I wonder what He sees when he looks at me through the blood of Christ, with all my sin blotted out never to be thought of again.  Is it the list?  Just the beautiful moments that I see when I look at that list I have made for my kids.  I don’t know.  But I pray that God would fill me with a love like His so that I can have the kind of mercy for my kids that He has had for me. 


"Mercy is God's supply system for every need everywhere. Mercy is that kindness, compassion and tenderness, which is a passion to suffer with, or participate in, another's ills or evils in order to relieve, heal and restore. It accepts another freely and gladly AS he is and supplies the needed good of life to build up and to bring to peace and keep in peace. It is to take another into one's heart JUST AS HE IS and cherish and nourish him there. Mercy takes another's sins and evils and faults as its own, and frees the other by bearing them to God. This is the Glow-of-love. This is the ANOINTING."  (Rex B. Andrews)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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