Day 65...Scraped knees

Dear Sadie,
Outside on a bright and sunny April day, we were playing in the grandparents front yard, grassy hills below and vibrant blue sky above.  You in your little navy blue with tiny flowers dress.  I was camera-ready.  You were walking along a shallow wall of gray cement bricks laid along the flower bed, the newly acclaimed play area for you and Titus.  Suddenly you picked up the pace and decided to run along the wall, before I could even yell, stop.  With no traction under your silvery sandals, you slipped and scraped your knee on the side of the brick, sadly ending your joyful excursion.  Most of the time when blood is shed you simply become undone.  And not in a I need you or Hold me kind of way.  You almost just want to cry about the fact that something went wrong.  You don't want hugs or consolation or affirmation.  Well, sometimes you do when it is really bad.  But with a scraped knee, you really just want to dramatically cry out all of your frustration and wail how unfair it is that something like this happened to you.  It's pretty clear that you just want things to be back to the way they were.  Well, the truth is, mommy's and daddy's (and everyone else, for that matter) would love to help you dodge all kinds of pain, too, if we could!  I think a lot of us are like this in life.  Whenever we are confronted with something uncomfortable, we get on the justice track where we want to rant about why this or that should or shouldn't be happening.  We may take it to God, or complain to our friends, but one way or another, we're going to let our confusion or frustration be heard.  We are all guilty of this, and sometimes it's not a bad thing!  Tonight I was reminded how while God doesn't cause every bad thing to happen, it's in those moments that we grow the fruits of the spirit, into His likeness, developing intimacy with Him.  Therefore, whatever my circumstances, scraped or polished, I will keep on learning what it means to keep looking at Him.  Keeping my eyes locked on His will ultimately mean not sweating the small stuff, knowing I am safe in my Father's hands.  Those insufferable things will become dim as they should be, miraculously, because He's got it all.  I hope you learn to let me hold you, let me kiss those boo boos away.  I want to help you through hard times.  But most of all, I pray that you will let Him be your comfort and cry out to Him when you need your Heavenly Daddy.  He is strong and capable.

Love,
Mommy

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of various kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4