God’s Grace in Circles, Squares, and Triangles

Hello faithful family, friends, and followers, thank you once again for taking the time to follow us on our journey. This past week we traveled back to Iowa to celebrate Joy’s mother Ruth’s 98th birthday stopping on the way down for a quick visit with treasured friends. Our travels and the day went very well and we thank God for the opportunity of celebrating Ruth’s 98 years. And, even though it is well past Joy’s milestone birthday in August, she gathered with her close girlfriends for a collective birthday celebration for several in the group. Joy was asked to give a devotional for the gathering and from everything I have heard, she did a marvelous job. It is such a blessing to see Joy be able to enjoy times of celebration when, except by God’s mercy and grace, things could have been oh so very different.

At this stage in Joy’s long-haul recovery, it is often difficult to see progress and there are certainly times when I question if we’ve lost a little ground. So I looked back at my post from a year ago at the end of October and was re-assured that yes, we have indeed made progress. Here’s just a portion of the post:

"While Joy’s word pronunciation and pace of reading improved, we recently discovered, that comprehension of many words and concepts remains an issue. Example, we realized that Joy lost all concept of shapes. She did not understand and could not identify a circle, square, rectangle, triangle, or oval, not one shape, nothing, nada, zip. When asked to point to the circle in a set of six pictures, even though the circle was the only shape among the choices, she was totally stumped, it just made no sense to her. While that is only one example, there were other words and concepts that we’ve discovered she does a good job of reading and working around in conversation, but for which she has no idea of their meaning."

I am so very thankful that there has been progress, while at the same time, I/we would covet your prayers for still further healing especially of Joy’s aphasia. While shapes are now recognized, there are still many words that escape her and/or that she has difficulty recalling when she wants to in conversation.

I often reference, as I did again above, our marvel at the grace and mercy God has shown us on this winding road we have traveled. While I understand I may be at risk of restating the obvious or overusing, if possible, the phrase, it is still so truly felt and experienced by us that no other expression seems more appropriate. So once again, I’ll turn to Buechner to shed a bit more light on my oft used phrase:

“After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody’s much interested any more. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left. Grace is something you can never get but only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth. A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody? A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do. The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you. There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.”

And so, we'll leave you with a few select verses from our reading in Psalms 92 and 94 this week, that seem tailored just to our story:

Unless the LORD had helped me,

I would soon have settled in the silence of the grave.

I cried out, “I am slipping!”

but your unfailing love, O LORD, supported me.

When doubts filled my mind,

your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.

You thrill me, LORD, with all you have done for me!

I sing for joy because of what you have done.

O LORD, what great works you do!