Somewhere in Between – Crazy and Wonderful!

“How do you make sense of crazy?”
Written in my journal on March 22, 2006

“These things are too wonderful.”
Written in my journal on January 18, 2006

On this continuum of thought, where do you live – more on the crazy or more on the wonderful?

I am finding that I live somewhere in between.

Here’s crazy! It all began quite too early one morning when Ada came screaming into our bedroom around 4:00 am. She had had a bad dream and just knew that the bear from Barney Camp was in her bedroom. Later that morning, I was trying to get us all out the door to gymnastics and Maya decided that we needed to chat. I thankfully had thought about getting the car going before this, so at least we would be jumping into a warm car on this windy, cold day once we finally got there. I got Ada and Carson “shoed and coated” and scooted them out the door to get in the car. Maya needed to talk about her gloves and why she has gloves with just a thumb finger instead of gloves with five fingers. With my patience about to pop, I finally got us moving. When we got to the garage, I didn’t find two children nestled in their car seats with seat belts buckled but rather the garage door now closed and Ada and Carson riding their scooters in the garage. Remember my great idea to turn the car on to get it warm – yep! It is still on, and the garage door now CLOSED?!? The climax moment of crazy had come! I had just survived the glove conversation without an outburst of hurry and now I realize that all this time my other two precious darlings were in the garage asphyxiating themselves with car exhaust fumes while happily riding their Spiderman and Barbie scooters around the garage! So, of course, the patience is long gone, the crazy woman appears, words are exchanged, and it is still MORNING! I am just grateful for a few moments in the car with everyone belted in to find my center and begin again.

On those days of crazy, I do a whole lot of beginning again.

When you live somewhere in between, you can always count on the days of crazy to be met by the moments of wonderful! And so, I found myself on another day experiencing the priceless treasure of a perfect word at the most unexpected time. There we were all five at the dinner table with a hot meal of spaghetti in front of us. This is the first miracle of this moment. The second miracle – they were all happy and excited to eat what was in front of them. And then the third miracle, it was Maya’s turn to pray and at the end of her prayer, she simply says – “God, I love what you see for me! In Jesus name, Amen.” As they began to gorge on spaghetti, Ron and I just sat there.

“I love what you see for me.”

What a cool thing to say! And of course, we had to ask ourselves – could we say the same? First, Maya believed that Father God sees things for her. And secondly, she loves it. Where did she get this? Had she been reading Jeremiah 29:11 or Psalm 143:8-10? It was just a moment of wonderful to enjoy!

I suppose we all live somewhere in between the crazy and the wonderful!

Father God is there too – right beside us, holding our hand (Psalm 73:23).

There is a way through it; there is a center to be found.

There is peace (Hebrews 10:19-23 and Romans 8).

There is even extravagance (Psalm 36:7-9)!

He is always waiting, and he is always loving (Revelation 3:20 and Jeremiah 31:3).

I think without his friendship, I would drown in the crazy, and I would miss the wonderful! So, I continue — just like you — rooted in his love, surrounded by his peace and focused on his picture!