This is Tuesday

This is Tuesday.  It is not even 9am and the words “Epic Fail” are running all over my house.  The baby is still asleep which means my chance to go exercise has come and gone.  Jude and Grace have managed to come down the stairs fighting…where could a fight start in those five seconds from your room to the staircase?  Jake is reading The Hobbit and lamenting over the fact that he hasn’t finished watching “The Lord of the Rings” yet (yes…we are that nerdy).  There are dishes leftover from yesterday in the sink, and I ran the dishwasher 3 times yesterday.  I had this idea that when everyone came downstairs this morning they would grab a book…I was reading a book…and we would have some quiet reading time until the baby woke up.  I was wrong.  Jake may be reading The Hobbit, but Jude has chosen “Thank You Notes” by Jimmy Fallon which may or may not be age appropriate for my 9 year old, and Grace has chosen to fashion her stuffed dog a leash out of her brother’s belt…maybe this is where the argument started.  And they are still arguing and complaining as the baby emerges from my bed (yes…I know) with the world’s largest diaper sagging from his body. 

This is Tuesday.

This is Not Even the Middle of the Week.

Did Jesus laugh out loud when I had my vision of my tribe and our quiet reading time?

I have literally tossed a bag of “Frosted Apple and Cinnamon Rings” (aka generic Apple Jacks) on the table with three bowls, spoons, milk and yogurt for the baby when we make it to the table.  I instantly launch into a mini sermon titled, “Why Are You Ruining My Family”.  This mini sermon comes equipped with phrases like “Long after I am gone you will still have each other” and “We are family and that is the most important thing ever” …I am losing…possibly my mind before 9am…I give it one last ditch effort to hit them all right in the heart with how important we should be to each other…so important that we don’t argue and complain until at least 10:30 on a Tuesday morning. 

I throw in this one last comment:

There is a row in Heaven Saved Just for The Hooks Family.

We will Worship Jesus Together for All Eternity.

Family is Forever Y’all.

And I am done.  And it is finished.  I am awaiting tears mixed with applause and changed lives at the breakfast table, but Jesus decided to give me something else instead.  My three big kids launch into this amazing, and I really do mean amazing, conversation about who they want to see in heaven.  Jake informs me that he definitely wants to be sitting next to his wife, and I assure him she is part of The Hooks Family row.  Jude starts talking about meeting Noah, and Jake and Grace are in complete agreement that meeting David will be “boss” (incredible vocabulary).  I listen as they talk about meeting Jesus, and Mary, and Joseph and Judah and Paul and Silas and the disciples.  Their excitement is unreal.  And literally the praise music I had on to remind me not to murder my children before 9am is singing about how much Jesus loves us.  And I have chills.  And Jude leans over and whispers to the baby, “I love you”.  And the baby is laughing.  And I am holding back all sorts of tears.  And this is my tribe.  This is my family.  This is Tuesday.  And for about 45 seconds it is beautiful.  Really beautiful.  Pajamas, messy hair, stinky breath, generic bags of cereal and mom lecturing her kiddos type of beautiful.  For about 45 seconds this moment is shining.  For about 45 seconds I can see so clearly what He is doing in us and through us and with us.

And then the time is up.

We have moved on.

Jude and Grace have been banished to the dining room.

The baby squirted yogurt everywhere.

Jake has left the table and headed upstairs to get lost in a book.

And I am doing dishes and sweeping up an entire buffet from the kitchen floor.

For the past couple weeks I have literally been stuck in Genesis 15:1-6.  I have thought on this passage so many times it is unreal.  I have walked with my friend, Susi, just to talk about it.  I have shared it tucked into my Jesus Story.  I have kept my husband awake to ask him his take on this passage (this might make me annoying).  It is the account of God talking to Abram (long before He changed his name of Abraham) late one night.  God tells Abram He is his shield and his reward, and Abram reminds God that he has been asking and asking and asking for a child, and yet God has not provided him with a child.  And God then takes Abram out into the darkness, and tells him to

“Look up at the sky and count the stars…if indeed you can count them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (vs. 5)

This is God giving Abram the promise.  His promise to Abram.  It is huge.  It is marvelous.  It is unbelievable and it is bigger than Abram could ever have imagined.  His offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the African sky thousands of years ago…count them if you can…see if you can catch a glimpse of how BIG God really is…And in verse 6 Abram believes God, and it is credited to Abram as righteousness.  This is a beautiful moment in the life of Abram. God did not take the darkness away.  He did, however, step into the darkness with Abram and showed him all the little lights shining…and that night sky was lit up y’all. And here I am in my kitchen with my kids, my praise music, my cereal and their excitement over Heaven.  And it may only be 45 seconds, and it didn’t replace the darkness or the dirty dishes or the dire need for disinfectant on my floor…but for a moment…with Jesus…I can count His promises all over my Tuesday morning, and I can choose to see His promise in my life too.  And y’all that moment this morning sure did SHINE.

So don’t miss it y’all.  Don’t miss His promise in the midst of your ordinary.  I could tell you about how while I wrote precious little messages of Jesus love and encouragement on bags filled with cookies, my kiddos were terrified as if a famine was coming that our friends would get all the cookies.  I could also tell you on the walk around the corner to deliver the cookies, the baby would yell, “Bubba” and his two older brothers would turn back and wave and the baby would laugh and laugh.  I could tell you about my son Jake making me turn back around today to hand the last bag of cookies to a homeless man named, Cory.  And then I could tell you about the bickering five seconds later about whether or not we should listen to my music or their music and could we just come to a compromise please.  I could tell you about eating hot dogs for lunch and planning our evening of movie watching and popcorn.  And I could just as easily tell you about when the baby finally fell asleep for his nap and the 882 times my older three woke him up.  And I might even tell you that I yelled at them…which woke the baby up again.  Sigh.  But in the midst of all that mundane Tuesday filled with stress, and annoyances is Jesus and He is pointing to all of His promises in our little lives…and we can count them…if we can…because, y’all, there is a lot of promises shining all over our little lives.  They are in there.  In the middle of the everyday.  Right where God comes and finds us.

So, Mommies, Daddies, Sisters, Wives, Husbands, Brothers, Best Friends, Neighbors, all of us ordinary people…take a minute or two or ten on this Tuesday and look at all the good He IS doing.  Look at all the moments shining so bright throughout your day.  Look for the note from your kiddo saying he is sorry.  Look for the text from your friend at just the right moment with just the right words.  Look for the snuggles from the babies who are sleepy because they missed their nap.  Look for the moment on the porch swing where you both laugh hysterically at the insanely inappropriate YouTube video.  Look for the quiet when the kids are all asleep, and there is that one hidden cookie you saved from the famine wary bunch.  He is in the 45 seconds on a Tuesday morning.  He is reminding you He is doing big things and they are good things.  And He is asking you to see them.  God did not call Abram away from his home to see the promise He had for him…He simply called him to his same front yard and the same night sky he had looked at a billion times before. 

And on that random night, thousands of years ago,

 Abram simply chose to see what God had made and was promising to make with one ordinary life.

And He is making promises to you too.

Right in your own front yard.

In that same old Tuesday you have lived through a billion times before.

Shalom Y’all.