An ordinary day; extra-ordinary grace.

Rick always asks me how my day is going when I call him to find out how he is doing on the road. I always reply, "Okay." Then I proceed to tell him what is happening around the old homestead while he's away, bringing home the bacon.

But how do I describe today?

How do I explain how much my heart is torn by the sin I see in my child, because it is so much a copy of my own? And how do I tell him how much my heart is warmed by the worship I witnessed as my older ones (of the ones still at home) shared their love of God and their understanding of His word and His majesty with their younger siblings?

Oh, I can say that two of the children had a disagreement, and that words were exchanged, fast and furious. I can tell him that just before lunch, when this disagreement took place, we had just finished watching a demonstration of how vast and how amazing our universe is, and that we all were in awe of our God, Who created it all for us.

But, it's hard to explain how God works in the lives of one ordinary family in an out-of-the-way township in the middle of nowhere.

When the child-who-was-angry was being confronted, lovingly, by her siblings, she was reminded that God is BIG, and that we are very, very small. She was led to see that the "fights and quarrels" among us were caused by our own evil desires, by wanting something and not getting it. She was reminded that this very BIG and astounding Creator God is perfectly able to supply all of our needs, and that He has done just that, by giving her the very siblings that He uses to refine her as gold.

Nothing happens by chance. The fact that we had just sat at the computer, watching an amazing demonstration of the vastness of the universe and the complexity of astrological bodies and the enormity of time it would take (hundreds of billions of years!) to reach the outermost edge of what astronomers have discovered, and then were faced with a family crisis that called for a reminder of the greatness of our God...this was not by chance.

The fact that we had to run to town to do some errands and that only Mom and the child-who-was-angry were to go was not at all by chance, either. It gave us time to visit and chat, to gain understanding, and to simply enjoy each other's company.

When I see the sin that runs rampant in my family, it humbles me and drives me to my knees. It's a holy experience, like this. And when I see the maturity and knowledge and understanding shared by the older ones, it humbles me and drives me to my knees, too...but in gratefulness for God's grace.