Tangled branches

As I was sitting in my car waiting for someone, I was looking around. Glancing to my right I saw this birdhouse and then was immediately drawn to the tangled branches that held it up. Looking closely, it was more interesting. No green, no life, chaos and confusion, dark and drab. The house perched on the top, worn and weary, the paint fading and peeling. One strong post in the center, one strong post that the house sits on and all else grows around.

One important element of the faithful life is knowing the difference between reality and fantasy. As my life has gone along and different milestones have come and gone, I can see that life does not always look like I had planned. There are so many things that I thought were a given. What a nuclear family looked like, what being a wife and partner meant, what the work of a mother was. Embedded in all these beliefs was the thought that if I worked hard enough, if I did it all "right", the story would turn out the way it was in my mind. Oh the tangled branches of our lives.

Life really is a journey, a million different roads, little paths that just can't be over looked. Life is not simple, it is not designed to be simple. It is so easy today at almost 50 to see what feels like the obvious truth. But as we embark on our different paths, doesn't it seem like the goal is obvious, the truth clear?

Grace is most often found for me in those places where the branches cross. In those places where my plan may be coming to fruition or not. God calls each of us to different places and in different ways. We are each created to live into the fullness of our being. At times in our lives that focus is on ourselves. We are focused on who we are, how that will be lived out, what am I doing? At other times, for me it has come with age, we look at the world around us, the places in our lives that we have most effected others and wonder......

What could I have done differently? Why didn't I see that? What can I do now to help? What is my responsibility?

God calls us to a whole story, a journey. We are not called to a snapshot of life, a moment in time. We are each here to live a life of collective experiences . I believe that our lives are a result of the all of these together. We grow up within a certain context, a culture. We live within our race, our gender, our community, our faith. We live in the East, the West, we live . There are a million different things that inform our view of the world.

Gracious God, I give thanks today for all the blessings of this life. For the awareness of the world around me and all those I love .

Gracious God, Help me to know how you can best use me today. Help me to remember that those in my life also have a path that is designed for them. Help me to remember that I am not in charge of their path. Help me to remember that I am one element, one part of the journey.

Gracious God, Help me to remember today that you are that strong and consistent center, that place within that holds us together, that place that we can trust.

Gracious God, Thank you for the journey today and all the blessings that it holds. Amen