Now I'll Do Dishes

It's 8:30pm and I have a dishwasher only half unloaded, a counter full of dirty dishes, and washing machine with this morning's laundry still in it. So of course, it's time to blog.

Today I heard a story about a juvenile justice attorney who teaches a boy's Sunday school children's class, even though it wouldn't typically be something he would do. When asked what made him choose to do it, he replied 'if I don't, I will have no hope in humanity at all'.I think I have something in common with this attorney!

Last week, through a series of small nudges on my heart and other events, I showed up at Garden Estates Retirement Home to visit some church members whose names I've read on the prayer list but have never met. I was hoping to bless someone with my baby's happy smile and a prayer from the mouth of my 3 year old, but I had suspision that perhaps what was really about to be was God blessing me through someone.

I was on to something!

I thought I was headed for a nursing home, but I was really visiting a beautiful, comfortable and cheerful retirement home. I walked through the door and was greeted by happy elderly faces and comments. Madalyn was given a ride on someone's wheelchair, riding on an older woman's lap around the lobby. Liam was ooh-ed and aaw-ed over. I made a friend that wasn't on my list to visit.

But the best part was that I got to meet these women who had aged gracefully and cheerfully, who survived the years with young children and had sustained hope through life's trials so that they had only happy tales to tell me.

A therapist needs to hear that. This might be my Sunday school class.

God is faithful to give us hope, even when we're sure he's being uncharacteristically silent.

I am learning there's a lot of suffering I don't have peace about or answers for in this world and in this life, but faithful to His promises, my hope in a God that remains present is being solidified.

Praise Him.