That John scripture is on my dad’s tomb, he painted /imagined John the Baptist in his art work, and we felt it fitting that it be put on his tombstone by a sculptor friend. Shining a light on truth, beauty and joy, that’s what I see my job as, and trying to love through it all x
I wish I had something meaningful to add related to the questions you pose, but honestly, my mind is just stuck on your beautiful (and haunting) lines:
"Someday will bring the last time
a small boy scurries into my lap,
scared from a big jump
at the movie theater
(even though he loves the movie),
but today will not be that day."
These words of yours speak deeply to me. I am a grateful (and imperfect) parent of two--8yrs and 3yrs. These days of lap-sitting, bedtime routines, crying because they do not get ENOUGH time with you....oh, how I take these for granted! It's so easy for me, in the moment when trying to enact "my" plan for the evening (or whatever time of day it is), to get annoyed, and send up a quick, snarky, petition, "Can't they just grow up yet?"
And sure enough they will, and when that day comes, I know I'll look back regretting that I wished these times away.
In short, what I am trying to say is thank you, Laura! I needed this reminder (especially now at 10:32pm) when the 3yr old is STILL not asleep, disrupting any opportunity for my wife and I to have a moment to relax together before bed...
Oh how I love this one. For so many years our family has said it to each other, to ourselves, “ Everything will be alright in the end . If it’s not alright, it’s not the end.” I’m traveling in the UK with my beloved first grandson, a gift to him. The other night, he thought his phone was dead for good. He was crying, could barely breathe...I knew what that phone meant to a 13 year old, everything. I said “ It will be alright ( praying for that to be true while searching “ phone repair in York”) and suddenly it was. It came back to life. I will not always be able to make things right for him, but I will always remind him it’s not the end. Thank you for your beautiful story.
Your words and the comments they awaken are always a source of hope and fellowship for me. I agree we live in hard times, but I guess all ages have had their own boulders to bear too.
Ours just feels heavier right now, maybe because it’s us doing the carrying. The world’s darkness in 2025, darker than other years too.
Burdens always seem heavier when they’re our own. Even if the person next door carries a similar cross. Funny how that works…
The questions that echo in my darkness have mostly been about healing. When will healing come and wholeness arrive?
These questions remind me though that every hardship is an incomplete sentence, a blank to be filled, an incarnation of how everything within time has a missing piece, a broken edge.
And that every nugget of darkness points to a nugget of grace. Because its broken edge already bears the shape of grace.
What do you hear in echoes or answers?
The first things I heard:
God is sovereign.
"I will never leave you nor forsake you."
That John scripture is on my dad’s tomb, he painted /imagined John the Baptist in his art work, and we felt it fitting that it be put on his tombstone by a sculptor friend. Shining a light on truth, beauty and joy, that’s what I see my job as, and trying to love through it all x
I wish I had something meaningful to add related to the questions you pose, but honestly, my mind is just stuck on your beautiful (and haunting) lines:
"Someday will bring the last time
a small boy scurries into my lap,
scared from a big jump
at the movie theater
(even though he loves the movie),
but today will not be that day."
These words of yours speak deeply to me. I am a grateful (and imperfect) parent of two--8yrs and 3yrs. These days of lap-sitting, bedtime routines, crying because they do not get ENOUGH time with you....oh, how I take these for granted! It's so easy for me, in the moment when trying to enact "my" plan for the evening (or whatever time of day it is), to get annoyed, and send up a quick, snarky, petition, "Can't they just grow up yet?"
And sure enough they will, and when that day comes, I know I'll look back regretting that I wished these times away.
In short, what I am trying to say is thank you, Laura! I needed this reminder (especially now at 10:32pm) when the 3yr old is STILL not asleep, disrupting any opportunity for my wife and I to have a moment to relax together before bed...
Oh how I love this one. For so many years our family has said it to each other, to ourselves, “ Everything will be alright in the end . If it’s not alright, it’s not the end.” I’m traveling in the UK with my beloved first grandson, a gift to him. The other night, he thought his phone was dead for good. He was crying, could barely breathe...I knew what that phone meant to a 13 year old, everything. I said “ It will be alright ( praying for that to be true while searching “ phone repair in York”) and suddenly it was. It came back to life. I will not always be able to make things right for him, but I will always remind him it’s not the end. Thank you for your beautiful story.
Your words and the comments they awaken are always a source of hope and fellowship for me. I agree we live in hard times, but I guess all ages have had their own boulders to bear too.
Ours just feels heavier right now, maybe because it’s us doing the carrying. The world’s darkness in 2025, darker than other years too.
Burdens always seem heavier when they’re our own. Even if the person next door carries a similar cross. Funny how that works…
The questions that echo in my darkness have mostly been about healing. When will healing come and wholeness arrive?
These questions remind me though that every hardship is an incomplete sentence, a blank to be filled, an incarnation of how everything within time has a missing piece, a broken edge.
And that every nugget of darkness points to a nugget of grace. Because its broken edge already bears the shape of grace.
Very fine “ words” ,thankyou🙏🙏💕
This was so beautiful, Laura. Thank you. Our church also does CGS and I have been loving learning more about it!!