SAFE PLACE

Resting and recharging this beautiful Sunday by spending time with my church family, taking the granddog for a drive, trying a new recipe for autumn sangria...and by writing!

A friend posted on her Facebook timeline recently:

I think the greatest thing that we can offer to someone

is to be their peace, to be their softest and safest space.

After receiving their grudges from the world,

battling their chaotic minds, indecisive sadness, and countless times

questioning their worthiness - they have us -

hugging their sorrows and making them feel like this is their

"genuine home."

- Notebook

A couple of weekends ago, I spent time with my dear friend Jill. Jill has been a "safe place" for me for almost 50 years. In our brief time together, as we talked about I-can't-remember-what, I started crying.

"I'm sorry!" I apologized, wiping away tears. "I cry a lot these days!"

"No worries," Jill assured me. "I'm okay with tears."

I have lived a long, long time in The Land of We Don't Do Big Feelings (especially "heavy" ones like sadness, anger, or frustration). I am a misfit, an imposter, a second-class citizen, often opting not to speak rather than to risk ridicule or rejection by exposing my alien identity with my "accent."

But Jill is "home." She is a true sister in Christ. She doesn't laugh, mock, or belittle my "accent" (aka big feelings), but makes me feel welcomed, loved, and valued. (Maybe Jill is so good at making me feel "at home" because she has Big Feelings, too.)

Lots of seemingly random bits and pieces here on the blog today...but, trust me, they are not unrelated.

Today is Sunday.

Morning worship, study, time with God's people...

Rest, physical and mental...

Throwing the ball for Lefty, trying a new recipe, savoring the Golden Hour as late afternoon sunlight filters across the hayfield outside my window...

Remembering time recently spent in the company of a dear friend...

All these things turn my thoughts to the loveliness of Jesus.

He is faithful, merciful, gracious, kind, good, sufficient, forgiving. He does not mock, ridicule, or belittle.

When he walked on this earth, Jesus welcomed the outcast, touched the unclean, healed the sick, and embraced the broken. "No worries...I'm okay with tears."

Jesus - he is the safest place of all.