It was not so bad from where I stood

As I answered the phone for the third time by eight o'clock this morning, I walked into the kitchen to heat up the coffee I had been drinking in stops and starts since 5.30.  The inside of the microwave door had a few drips on it, and as I leaned down to place my cup within, I saw that the glass turntable plate needed wiping as well.

I continued to talk with our oldest daughter while I retrieved a fresh dish rag from the drawer.  The microwave door wiped clean in two swipes of the wet rag.  The plate was removed, needing just a little rinsing off.

But when I put the plate back on its track, oh, there were a few more red marks, those that had exceeded the definition of drips and could be classified more as "splotches."  Leaning down was not going to reach them.  And so,  I kneeled.

It had not appeared so bad from where I stood, but when I got down on my knees, I saw something quite different indeed.  It took a new perspective to grasp the extent of the explosion within.  I rinsed the rag, and as I chatted on the phone and simultaneously wiped the interior of the microwave, I realized that the debris wasn't just wiping off.  It gave every indication of having been transformed into some kind of super glue.

Quite frankly, I didn't want to get into this.  Just back off and no one will know you saw it, a little voice whispered in my ear -- I am sure the same little voice that whispered to whoever did it in the first place.  If it had been wiped up immediately -- "made right" when it first happened --those drippings would not have grown roots.  It would have not developed into a confrontation at all.

I stayed on my knees where I could see it fully and held that wet rag against each one of the minor explosions to soften what had blown up.  It was not going to go away on its own.  The soft wet rag accomplished what seemed impossible a few minutes before, just holding and applying it to each transgression.

O, that we would first seek to apply grace to those difficult situations and impossible relationships before they harden.  Placing blame, pointing fingers, accusing or wallowing in the mire only hardens it more.  Change only happens when we approach with healing in our hands and words and actions.  As a dear wise friend once told me when I was a teenager, "You cannot change others.  You can only change yourself."  And that would be Jesus Who does exactly that.  He changes my heart.

...and it takes getting on my knees to change my vision to what He sees and how He sees it.

Jesus did not walk away from my mess.
           He held out His nail-scarred hands
     not with a list of my iniquities
but with healing in His wings
                         and visible grace.

May we do the same - forgiven, changed and bearing grace in incredible places.  And so, we kneel.

But for you
    who fear My name
the sun of righteousness shall rise,
with healing in its wings.

                         Malachi 4.2