Today

Today is hard.

And on the hard days, more than any other, I need to make the effort to choose thankfulness ~

The sun was shining this morning when I opened the curtains - astonishingly bright for a winter day - and it filled the whole apartment.  I could even feel the warmth from it.  The Lord knew I would need to see the sun today.

Coworker-friends sat around my living room at lunch, all of us balancing bowls of soup and napkins with sliced bread.

Time with God's Word is always necessary, but especially precious when I'm most aware of my need.  His truth has brought an incredible peace even while the tears come and go.

Pink roses, ones Grandma would love, sit on my trunk.  I think about God's fingers forming their delicate petals, the same fingers that created Grandma herself with so much love, fingers of the One who holds her this moment when I cannot.

Emmanuel has put death's dark shadows to flight.

Even in sadness, God continues to give beauty and music and sunsets and things to celebrate.  Friends getting married.  Healing.  Tiny new babies.

Life.

Grandma's life, and all the memories and love she's brought.  The knowledge that she has eternal life, that our Good Shepherd is walking with her through this valley and He will not leave her side.

Dad's life of over fifty (though I won't say how many over fifty...) years.

This evening will be a fairly typical Friday: dinner and a movie with the fam.

And I'm thankful.  Thankful for belonging and home, for people who know and love me, for the grace of not being alone.

God is good to me.  So very good.