Throw-back Thursday

As I sit here at my desk on this overcast, cool fall day, I just posted my #tbt picture on facebook and twitter.  It's a mug that has a picture of Hannah and Ross when they were little, a gift given to me one Mother's Day years ago.  It is my favorite coffee mug.  It makes me smile every time I see it in the cabinet and reach for it.
Last Sunday as I was a guest in a church in Kingsport, TN, they had an afternoon showing of the movie that was based on my family's story, "Nightmare in Columbia County" directly before I was to share a mini-concert.  I had not watched it literally since its original 1991 CBS airdate that I could recall, so I decided I would sit in the back and watch so that I could be aware of what the congregation had just seen before I got up to sing/share.  There were a few times that I had to leave the room, as there were just painful scenes I did not feel I needed to see again.
Sometimes it seems so strange that I actually lived through the horrific tragedy depicted in that movie, and the ones I share about almost weekly in the ministry to which the Lord has called me.  My beautiful sister Shari left this world at only 17 years old at the hands of a murderer. 
  Some memories are sweet, some are bittersweet, and some are just painful.  As I look in contrast at the precious faces of my children on this coffee mug sitting on my desk, it is bittersweet, but mostly sweet, knowing being their mom is the greatest calling of my life.  As they are now 21 and 18 and both in college, my home is a lot quieter, and I miss the noise many days.  Other days I embrace it, knowing it is just part of this new season, this new normal.  But I look back with gratitude. 
When I look at my sister's smiling face, I remember with gratitude the joy she brought into our family and into my life, and I choose not to dwell on what happened to her, but where she is, and that I will see her again.
And in both situations, there is grace.  Grace that is truly sufficient, and amazing.  Just last night a dear friend brought over an unexpected gift and it is now displayed on my fireplace, because it expresses it all for me so perfectly.  "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor. 12:9)
So as we look back on these "throwback Thursdays," may we choose to see that it is truly all grace.  And it is perfect.
As John Newton wrote: "Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come, tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home!"