My life in pieces - and bits

Yesterday - a text from my husband, on the far side of the country, telling me that he just found out his brother-in-law is dying of cancer. He's searching for Hospice support for the family - who just happen to live in Virginia, where Dave was sent to work for a week. No coincidence, that.



And then - a long conversation with a good friend. Life in bits and pieces...lots of silence...and God present in the silence as much (or more) than in the conversation. Then helping another friend move from a house she really liked - and would have preferred to stay in. Followed by a long conversation on the cell phone, while out in the garden, going over the bits and pieces that come into play following a divorce.



Today, this verse from Psalm 73. "When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand." (NIV) And again today, the walls are going up for a new sanctuary. And yet again today, a new baby, Chloe Elizabeth, is born.



Bits and pieces. Lately, I've been gathering them up in an attempt at "Praying in Color" - drawing out and coloring my prayers. A week and a day into the attempt, I have a clear memory of those I am praying for, and the direction my prayers are going. Some are filled with pain, some have the promise of peace, all have at least a bit of the light of Christ added to them.



"Gather up the fragments", Jesus said, "so nothing may be lost." Bits and pieces. I'll gather some of them here - and entrust them to Jesus' care.