this house. it’s dust filled crevices and too much spewing out of everywhere.  i sweep and sweep and still, who could tell?  the sink shines up and sets a good tone for a moment. if only for a moment.  and in the endless sweeping and washing of peed in clothes and sheets….i ponder.

this house is my heart.  it shines up nice and presents itself at times for the world.  but the stench of exhaustion spews out and stains everything and everyone it comes in contact with.  vinegar works every time-in the tangible mess of sheets. but what is the vinegar for my heart?  what will take this stench away?  both from me and those i’ve wrecked? 

and i read Genesis-the entire book.  and it’s full of families.  families. that. are. a. complete. mess. 
sons who murder, fathers who abandon.  love so fractured that it poisons instead of nourishes. 

and i see me there.  and i see my own parents there.  and i fear to see my children there. 

i’ve been taught to ask-what does this text tell me about me?  about God?

………………………….

God comes down.  He preserves what we try to destroy.  He rescues what we murder.  He restores what we’ve torn apart.  He shows grace-sometimes it feels even offensive-this grace.  (duh. grace IS offensive.)

but more than anything else these family portraits of Genesis tell me that

 He. is. Powerful.

Almighty, Mighty, Powerful God.

the God of Abraham=God who declares righteous by faith

the God of Isaac=God who provides the lamb

the God of Jacob=God who stays with His sinful people-wherever they go and who fills that heart hole (“bless me!”) to those clinging in utter weakness.  the God who wounds to heal.

the God of me=God who never lets go and is powerful enough to overcome…..it. all.

all the wrecking i’ve done, the messes i’ve made, the sin i’ve lived each day with this brood who shares this place of no hiding. 

i have never wanted to wound, these ones i love so much it hurts.  but wound i do.  and sin. and they do it too.  there is no formula to make us immune-no vaccine that we can take to stop the poison.

But God.

He stops it.

personally.

specifically.

lovingly.

Powerfully.

dare i admit that sometimes i feel like giving up?  both in the washing of the sheets and the washing of my heart?

But God. 

He comes and He stops up the poison, and He bandages up the wounds, and He gives strength to say i am sorry and will you forgive me and i love you.  He keeps working out His plan for me….and for them.

He overcomes powerfully.

 and we keep at this family thing. 

i keep at this parenting thing.

because He is helping me to believe

He is God Almighty

El Elohe Israel

Mighty is the God of Israel.