Timing...

"When the stars line up
And you catch a break
People think you're lucky
But you know its grace

It can happen so fast
Or a little bit late
Timing is everything

You know I've had close calls
When it could've been me
I was young when I learned just how fragile life can be
I lost friends of mine
I guess it wasn't my time
Timing is everything

And I could've been the child that God took home,
And I would've been one more unfinished song
And when it seems a rhyme is hard to find
That's when one comes along
Just in time"
from Timing is Everything (Natalie Hemby, Troy Jones)

It is really comforting to know that "Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." ~Psalm 139:16 Things that seem like coincidences or happenstance, well, they aren't - it is GRACE. Often we just don't recognize it because we don't understand it. That undeserved favor may appear as an inconvenience or even as a tragedy, but there is something afoot that God understands that we just don't. Occasionally we get blessed by getting to see how the pieces of this puzzle of life all fit together; sometimes we're still waiting for that.

I decided not to cry yesterday, but to be happy. I realized that some days I need to let myself weep and other days I need to let myself feel joy. To be able to "feel" - really, really *feel* is a blessing that I think we take for granted. Sure, we like to feel joy but it is nice, but I think that feeling pain, though unpleasant, also testifies to our life, to our love, to our depth of care and there is a loveliness to the ache as long as we don't let it overcome us. "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." ~Ecclesiastes 3:11