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The
Pink Room: Thoughts About Intentional Living
Chapter
7/ Grace Abides.
Part
2 (Previous post contain the previous chapters.)
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I
love rainbows. I'm often in the car when I see them. I become a dangerous
driver.
Imagine
pulling your chin to the top of your steering wheel so you can see out the
whole front window--yep, that's what I look like. (Normally, I am pulled over
and parked on the side of the street.)
They
are pretty. They are ethereal, symbolic and happy--rainbows are cool. I'm
torn between this stupid glee I feel and a panic because it might disappear--at
any moment! Plus someone else should see what I’m seeing.
I'm
almost always alone when I see them. One time, when I was not, I was with a
friend who decided this atypical behavior was hilarious. I’m pretty reserved
normally. So when I’m not all stable and mature, it is something to behold.
I’ll
send a text or call someone and tell them they must go outside--right then.
They just laugh at me. These things just don't happen all the time! …unless you
are in Hawaii. It is so misty there that most days in the mid-day they have a
rainbow—it is the “rainbow state.” It says so on their license plates.
It
is particularly depressing when there is a brilliant rainbow and you are
driving on the highway and the entire world is speeding past it—I want them all
to stop. I wonder how many people actually see them when they are speeding down
the highway; I seem to be the only person straining my neck and getting into
yoga poses.
In
2011 my brother and I drove across the country. We went north from Atlanta and
then straight across all the states to San Diego. It was only nine or ten days
but we still managed to hit just about all the biggest tourist spots. I’ll
never forget the contrast between man-made and natural landscapes. We stopped
at World of Coke, The St. Louis Arch, Graceland, B.B. King’s Blues Club on
Beale St., Garden of the Gods, Four Corners, Great Sand Dunes National Park, The
Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas Strip and Pawn Stars shop, Disneyland…
We
stopped for a few hours at the Grand Canyon, long enough to get out at several
stops, drive along one side, and watch the sun set. The day we were there it
was misting, with broken small storm clouds off in the distance. It would be
sunny and then lightening. The spectacular part was there were these amazing
rainbows inside the canyon. My favorite was a rainbow right in front of a dark
grey lightening cloud and sunshine off to one side.
As
I drove away from the last rainbow I saw, a Fog Bow, or a chunk of rainbow in
the clouds I had these questions come to mind: how many times do I breeze past
particularly special things because of busyness? What have I overlooked today
that could have been special maybe even spectacular? Or was there something or
someone that God was trying to get me to stop and pay attention to, maybe He’s
trying to bless me?
I
was stopped in my tracks one day by these funny, sort of wise,
overwhelmingly-honest words from my niece, she's was four when this happened. She
mentioned (earlier she wanted to give something away to be generous because
being generous was good; later) her new twin brothers and she said, eyes wide
and hands outstretched, that she could just give them kisses all day because
she loved them so much. It wasn't what was said but how it was said, with wide
eyes, certainty and excitement--it felt like a reminder, I’m glad I was
paying attention to her. Just like the rainbows, something special happened in
that moment and in a second, it was over.
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I
think that Jesus struggled with the disciples in these ways. So many stories
revolved around a beautiful simple truth that got buried in
"yah-buts" and "but, hows". Sort of like Jesus sleeping in
the boat when a storm came and the disciples waking him up. They were basically
saying "I thought you were going to protect us". And hi, responding
"I thought you knew who I am."
If
we really remembered who we were with, we'd probably pay more attention for the
gentle reminders and cues to stop or pause. That is grace, where God reminds
us He is infinite in the finite.
And
when God interrupts, if he is talking to me with wide eyes and a burst of
excitement, like my niece does, I don't want to miss it!
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