A Beautiful Mess

As a mother of three young and active boys, I was pulling at straws for the last week of summer to keep the kiddies busy and to keep my sanity intact. So I headed to a local store and purchase some fun summer activities, blissfully in the clearance department. I set them out on the "craft table" in the sun room and with hands open told the boys to "go for it".

Go for it they did and for one project in particular - make your own stepping stones. I guess I didn't really think that one through...

The next morning I heard a gasp from my husband as he was opening the door to have his morning coffee in the sunshine of the very room where the crafts had taken place...

Cement powder still lingered in the air, rested on the windows, covered the chairs and had concreted itself to the top of the table. Small stones of different sizes, shapes and colors were sprawled out on the table. "I hope that comes off the table." my husband sighed as he left the room.















I looked around and smiled. To me it looked like a beautiful mess.

I wonder if we can allow ourselves that perspective during the times in our lives when things seem messy. Can we view it as a beautiful mess? It is a hard thing to do in the times when the powders of the pain are still lingering in the air and resting on our lives.

If there is only one thing that I have learned, it is that with God there is always beauty to be found even in the largest of messes.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11