GraceLaced Monday: When His Grace Comes Through Another

Therefore, He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.


Such a high priest truly meets our need - One who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Hebrews 7: 25-26

I love these scriptures from Hebrews. I've been reading them repeatedly for a few days, and they've been inspiring me to worship: Jesus, thank You for saving me completely! For being what I need; for being holy, blameless, pure, and set apart from sinners. You are the best!


I also love the photo above. BB and I are usually up early in the morning together, and usually one or both of these gals joins us.

Since it's GraceLaced Monday, I thought I'd focus on the way that God pours out His graces to us through others. Yesterday provided a beautiful example of this at our house...

We had a really restful Sunday, which was a grace all its own from the Lord, after a busy day of birthday celebrating on Saturday. AH turned 12, her first birthday here with us!

Late in the day Sunday, however, it became clear that our just-turned 12 year old really needed some counsel. It's so strange how these things begin. I mean, the need is always there - that need to dig deep and be heard and have help sorting out the past. We just never know what's going to spark one of those at-home counseling sessions. In this case, it was something rather inconsequential - mild correcting - that gave rise to a very, very long, deep heart discussion with AH.

These long talks are part of the healing and bonding process, but that does not make them simple or easy-breezy. They'll leave you limp as a dishrag as my Grandmom used to say.

The only reason I'm telling this story is to thank and praise God for His grace, shown in these ways:

* That BB was home for this particular long discussion, so that we worked with AH together

* That AH (and I) got to see his daddy-love for her, especially as he pulled her crying self into his arms near the end of our talk

* This was the biggest thing though. After we finished counseling with AH, I went up to spend time with the Lord, since I'd not had my devotions yet. When I came back down, it was to the wild hooting and hollering of my girly gaggle. BB had abandoned his schoolwork (and its accompanying deadline) and the trashed kitchen and decided to just play with them, which obviously went a long, long way in smoothing over the heavy, intense atmosphere that can come after the hard discussions. I mean, the girls were attacking him, and he was letting them and all of them were rolling with laughter and he was, too.

But it gets better. The attack-playing eventually turned into an all-out Nerf gun war. I was literally balled up on the couch, caught in the crossfire, as they say, watching them have a blast being crazy with him.

I watched in amazement, thanking God for showering such grace on BB, for the gift he was giving us all by engaging them in happy play. Once the Nerf war was over and we had the girls settled down, they all piled around him and started asking him questions about his past. They love to hear the stories of how he got this scar or that one or about that time he had to serve detention in high school...oh, he had a much more colorful childhood than I did.

And I must be mindful here to thank God for those long, hard talks with AH, because they are the stuff of healing and God is at work, even though it's painful sometimes.

So, today I'm giving God glory for the gift of this husband and the specific blessing of his cheerful sacrifice last night.