Cainberly....and a lesson learned

Do you remember Cainberly?  Here she is in her hayday- April 5,2002!

Here she is almost 9 years later exactly......

And here's the schoolroom...

And my bedroom....

Believe me, I prefer the tranquility of this....

But this......

is my reality.

I have purposefully not posted these to the blog- trying to give myself some time to make sense of it all.  To seek God.  To understand how close to truly meeting my Lord  Abby, Ben, Andy,and I were (about 3 feet, in truth).  We are not the worst off for the wear.  In fact, Andy and I can't bear to hear folks say "I'm so sorry!", even though it comes with the best of intentions.  There are whole towns in Alabama wiped out- Concord, Phil Campbell, Hackelburg....places you never hear on the news.  It's bad.  We are not in the same group of those victims. 

We are inconvenienced.  We're a bit stressed.  We are dusty and disorganized.

But we are not devastated.  We are not destroyed.  We are not homeless.  And we are not hopeless.

I can tell you stories about how it happened.  I can tell you how it looked, how it sounded, how it felt.  I can tell you all of these things- but want I really want to say is this......

He is so good.

So very good.

He brings peace to a time that seems loud and chaotic.  He brings hope to a situation that looks grey and bleak.  He brings love to a home that is buckling under the pressure, and that pressure not of a tree.  He brings grace, oh such sweet grace, to hearts that are hurting, wandering- grasping.

He brings a smile, a tear, a joy everlasting.  He brings gratefulness.  He brings a blessing from shambles.

He brings life.

And what more is to be said than that?