Tangled Mess

Ok, so in this picture you see a very tangled mess.  These are delicately beaded window treatments that I happen to LOVE.  Call it what you want, but I call it an array of pretties that make beautiful shades of loveliness throughout the house when the sunshine hits them.  These beauties were in my front window before Christmas.  But every girl likes to decorate for the holidays--and of course, the decor must match...Bye-bye beads til after Christmas.  Needless to say, when Yours Truly put these beaded beauties in a drawer for after Christmas, she didn't do it tenderly.  Oh no.  "Git Er Done, Shannon' does nothing meticulously or with any kind of premeditation.  Uh-uh.  In a drawer they go-no matter how lovely.  So, when that day came to put away all the reds and greens, I opened that drawer and (**GASP**) the beaded curtains were so tangled, so distressed and...quite frankly...ugly.  (Big sigh)...

So I decided to hang the curtains and try to untangle the endless, chaotic bound strands of beads.  And so it goes...2 hours into it...turns 4 hours...6 hours...no, I wouldn't give up....8 hours!  In one day?  Yes, 8 hours and it was still mayhem.  But I'll get to that...Now, those of you who know me, know that I have NO patience.  NO ties to material things.  Not even pets.  I could love something for 3 weeks and it's on Craig's List on week 4.  Believe me, I hear flack about it all the time.  It's just who I am.  Except for these dang beads.  I LOVE them...

So here I am am, hour after hour, gingerly trying to undo damage- strand after strand--only to end up in the same center of complicated mess.  I just couldn't get to the artery of the center.  I cussed,  prayed, cussed and prayed (go ahead, judge me).  It wasn't working.  I walked away NUMEROUS times.  But something GOOD did come out of it.  In between the whining, cussing, and praying...I thought about the tangled web of  strands and the adorned beads, and how that MUST reflect us in God's eyes.  Here we are in this world...the choices we make, the turns we take....it can lead to chaos, can't it?  It can lead to mayhem.  It's a tangled mess at times.  But a tangled mess of loveliness to God. No matter how ugly we are--he adores us and calls us beautiful in His eyes.  His hands are gentle ones trying to defend....trying to guide each bead (path).  And just when He fixes a strand, we take another turn.  His hands gently untangle us, but we are headstrong...we don't listen, we don't hear.  We push...push through what?  MORE chaos.  But He is faithful.  He is patient.  And He waits.  He waits for us to surrender.  Surrender.  Think about that.  How many times have you wandered through 'the wilderness' before you realized that you NEED the hands of God?  NEED the gentle loving provision of He who created you?

But there IS hope for those of us that love the Lord.  There is hope for we that persevere.  For those of us (me) that think they can take the lead in life...STOP...let the gentle hands of the Lord untangle your life.  Let Him sit back and smile when He knows you have surrendered to Him.  I promise you that the end result of patient, tender, loving, working hands...that LOVE the one that belongs to Him-will be straightened out.  Emulating an array of  BEAUTY that will display LOVELINESS throughout their lives...

3 days.  3 Days it took of gentle handling.  3 days of sore fingertips.  3 days of not giving up.  The end result was worth it to me. Maybe it's not beautiful to you, but to me...Ahhhh....it's done.  Just think what it means to our Creator....How many days has God been patient with you?  hah...will you surrender?

Yea, yea, I know this blog is about Jace, so here are a few pictures of what made me stop and laugh when I was so aggravated...

 Ava decided that her, Nick and Jace needed to sing "Oh, Come All Ye Faithful" with pregnant bellies...

And here they are after being silly all night....Now THIS is true Loveliness....

He Loved It!!

He got the hang of this Christmas thing...

The Gift of Jace

I  journal tonight with a grateful heart and a smile on my face.  You see, today when Jace came home from school, there was a special package wrapped inside of his backpack.  As I pulled out a small, brown paper bag embellished with red and green glittered Christmas stickers, I thought maybe it was a gift to Jace from his teachers.  But instead, as I unwrapped pretty red striped tissue I realized that it was a homemade dough Christmas ornament with a tiny handprint.  Not just any handprint.  That beautiful ornament is a special one, in that it is the sign for "I Love You"~~That handprint belongs to my Jace.  My gift from the Lord.  And what a gift he is!

Jace continues to learn sign as quickly as I can teach him.  I can even sign sentences to him and he understands.  Even down to telling him that he must '...first eat his dinner, then he may have a treat...', or that '...we must pay for that before we can open it..."~~ What a gift he is!

Jace's siblings embrace him, deaf or otherwise.  They too are learning sign very quickly.  There isn't a hint of communication frustration in our home.  Nope.  Jace can understand gestures if we don't know a specific sign.  If you are reading this, then you too could get to know Jace without learning any sign at all.  He is used to coping-used to improvising...He's never angry if others don't understand.  He simply puts his hand into yours and pulls you to whatever he is talking about.  He is a testimony in himself~~What a gift he is!

This is another ornament he made--also wrapped in red striped tissue.  It is a star smelling of gingerbread--precious yes, but not like that tiny hand sign.  I love that handprint!  I love that God designed it, formed it, brought it into this world-then sent it to ME!!  Oh, what a gift he is!!

So proud was he when I opened that gift and dropped to my knees to hug him, tears filling my eyes and kissing him madly!  His face lit up when I signed 'beautiful'  over and over again!  When I signed 'thank you, Jace!', His smiling eyes shown the love he has for me...That memory will be etched into my mind forever...What a GIFT he is!!!!!




More pictures of the past week for you to enjoy: