Handcrafted Grace

I've been asked a gazillion times how I survive being the wife of a pilot and raising four kids with my husband gone half of the time. I have many canned answers to this question and I have a list of people/things that aid in my survival. I've always known that I wouldn't be able to do this if it weren't for the infinite amount of grace God shoves at me every day. We all know that God is gracious and his grace gets us through a multitude of things we wouldn't be able to get through otherwise. Over the last few days, through two different conversations with two different friends, I've come to a revelation about God's grace- (I'm sure it's not really a revelation, and I'm just the last one to figure this out!).

A close friend of mine is in the midst of a battle with cancer. The other night, while sitting on the bleachers watching our sons play basketball, she admits that she feels bad for her friends and family that have to walk through this battle with her because God has given her the grace to do this, but he hasn't extended the same grace to those around her. Wow! She's sitting there, still healing from surgery and the complications from it and getting ready to begin a long, brutal treatment process and she feels sorry for me? I have her sympathy even though this isn't my fight, and to be honest, all I want to do is close my eyes and look away because it's too painful to watch.

It took me a few days and another conversation with a different friend to process all of this. It's not that God hasn't given grace to all of us. He gives each one of us Grace all of the time. The amazing thing about his grace, however, is that he tailors it for each one of us. Each morning he presents us with a gift of grace, handcrafted and engraved with our names on it. He's designed it to meet our every need. He didn't give me the grace to fight cancer, but he designed my grace to walk alongside her, to bring her chocolate and to make her laugh, to hug her kids and have her son over more often. In the same way, (not that I'm equating being a pilots wife to having cancer) he didn't give any of my friends the grace to be the wife of a pilot, to be a single mom for half of the time and to deal with the struggles it brings. He did however, provide them with grace to be my friend, to encourage me, to listen to me whine, and to drop in with Starbucks every once in a while!

As I've watched my friends and family members throughout the years struggle with all kinds of things: the loss of a child, infertility & adoption, infidelity, cancer, etc., I've been amazed at the grace they've been given and the strength they have to pick themselves up and to carry on. But I've come to realize that although they are still strong, amazing people, the root of their strength is God's grace.

God knows every minute detail of my journey. At every turn, at every junction, He's there with handcrafted grace. It's not a generic gift that anyone could use, it's just for me, just for this moment and its sufficient.