The Messy Bits

I was watching a movie the other night and there was a line that has stuck with me. An older woman is asked by her grandson, wouldn't she have loved to skip over the messy bits of her life to the beautiful moment she was experiencing in her old age? She laughs and shakes her head as she says, "life IS the messy bits."

How many times have I wanted to skip over the hard, painful, or boring moments to get to the exciting, more peaceful, or comfortable life?

How often do I look forward and miss the "messy bits" happening right in front of me?

Being intentionally present is hard work. Oh boy, is it ever! Sometimes I would rather turn on a movie, tune everything going on in front of me out, or pour myself into the tasks at hand.

And yet, as the days move forward I feel like the world turns faster and faster around each year, it seems as though it's the "messy bits" that bring me back to the present.

Like when I see my 12-year-old laughing and smiling after such a difficult and heart-wrenching year.

Or when I start to dance to a song while I take my ten-year-old to school and he gets the embarrassed grin on his face I remember so vividly from when he was a little boy.

Or the look on my fifteen-year-old's face when I attempt to do my makeup fancy and it turns out so so wrong.

Or when my seventeen-year-old asks if I'm still paying for his gas as he is walking out the door to school and I notice the look on his face after I make a passive-aggressive comment about him not looking hard enough for a job.

It's each of these moments that take me out of my go-mode and pull me back into the "messy bits" of life.

The parts of life where I can sit and savor the laughter and joy, hold and comfort through pain, and beat myself up over the unnecessary passive-aggressive comments that escape my lips.

Oh, the messy bits of life!

They are messy, but oh how they ever remind us of our humanity.

Oh, how they remind us of how much our loving Father continues to draw us nearer to His embrace.

I pray that you are able to slow down today, be present and attentive to those around you, and savor each and every moment as our Creator God draws you ever nearer to himself.