Evidence Demands a Verdict

A note to my regular readers:  I am taking a little side trip today from the usual format for this blog.  Back to the Psalms tomorrow but today I want to take you on a tour of my home...

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this...

A sweet friend recently purchased the movie Tangled for my daughters.  At least once every day five little girls from age 4 to 40 sit to watch the compelling tale of Rapunzel.  She not only has an inexplicable ability to grow hair twenty feet in length, she is portrayed as a domestic diva.  Every morning she has her tower spotless in less than fifteen minutes.  She fills the remainder of her day with baking, chess, ballet, knitting, guitar, climbing, reading and painting. 

This of course is how I know I'm watching a fairy tale.  Today I began my usual morning line up with dishes, laundry and tidying the house.  As I carried a pair of shoes here and a batch of clothes there I began to see little evidences of God's unfathomable love scattered around my house. 

•  A 1" square of petrified cheese that could double as a Scrabble tile if I could only find a Sharpie to give it a letter
• Six tubes of Chapstick splayed in my kitchen towel drawer
• Two mysterious bright pink carpet stains I suspect may be frosting
• A Hi Ho Cherrio cherry who returns like a magnet to my Master Bedroom no matter how many times I remove it
• An unwritten heart shaped note taped to my side of the bed with enough tape to affix a museum painting to the wall
• Mysterious stains that accent my comforter in various hues of grease brown
• Six stuffed spider legs who dangle between the cracks of a semi-closed toy trunk

This collection may seem strange to you.  Why would I consider these signs of God's love?

Each is a reminder of the real life lived inside this home.  These objects have been dropped, tucked and smeared by the five individuals who are gifts to me from the very heart of God.  God's love cannot be contained.  It overflows into every corner of this house and my heart.

Jesus, today I let myself be judge.  I'd slam down my gavel but with my intimate familiarity of the happenings in my house, it would smash into a million tiny pieces on the kitchen floor, wake the kids and make the dog bark for the next hour.  So just imagine my gavel rap as I loudly declare Your great love abounds here.  The evidence I see all around demands a verdict...Your love is immense and abundant.