“Wow, you are really beautiful!”

The waitress was looking at me? Stunned, I fumbled for a response. I mumbled, “You must like curly hair.”

“Yes, I really do!”

I went to the bathroom because I wanted to see what she saw. I saw dark circles and not-so-youthful skin.

“I don’t get it, Lord. I don’t see beauty.”

“I see it. You are beautiful to me. You see the cracks, she saw the light coming through the cracks. The beauty is in the light. The Light is Jesus living in you.”

* * * * * * *

Have you ever wondered by some elderly people seem to glow? While others seem to shrivel up? They both sport wrinkles and gray hair. What is the secret?

The Light. After years of serving Jesus, their fire consists of red-hot coals. Coals glow. Coals can cook food without burning it up. Coals can warm a room and start a fire in the dead wood.

We all have “cracks” – weaknesses, scars, or handicaps. If we concentrate on our “cracks” we miss the light shining through them.

“2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “Then he told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. …I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. (10) Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size – abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.” The Message

* * * * * * *

“God created the world out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing, He can make something out of us.” Martin Luther

* * * * * * *

“If the heights of our joy are measured by the depths of our gratitude, and gratitude is but a way of seeing, a spiritual perspective of smallness might offer a vital way of seeing especially conducive to gratitude. Those child photos, that wonder I experienced firsthand through her eyes – ‘How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it!’ – was that it? I had just held evidence of it. The joy of small that makes life large. Hadn’t I personally experienced it before too, that vantage point that gave a sense of smallness before grandeur? At the lip of the Grand Canyon, peering into the carved earth, the vastness of the hewn and many-hued chasm.” “One Thousand Gifts” Ann Voskamp

• This is why we go to the ocean. It makes us small in its vastness.
• This is why men go to sea for years at a time. Seeing only the ocean everywhere they look, makes them small.
• This is why we hike to the top of a mountain. Seeing for miles makes us small.
• This is why we love to fly. Seeing people reduced to the size of ants makes us embrace our smallness.

I returned to our table in the back room. We chose this restaurant on a whim. The only available tables were in the farthest room. We had finished our salads and still had not been served our drinks.

I’m sure the waitress complimented me to make up for the lack of service. She apologized. And even left a pitcher of sweet tea because that is what we were drinking.

I told my kids, “That waitress must be a drama student at the local college. It’s Father’s Day, and since I didn’t cook, she assumed I would be paying.” (Why can’t I just accept a compliment?)

But this was not a planned dinner, only two of our children were there for a visit. We decided at the last-minute to go out to eat.

I had offered to cook but we are in a heat wave. David didn’t want to warm up the house anymore with cooking.

The food was not the important thing – the visit was. You cannot put a price on time together. You don’t really appreciate its value until you are apart.

David teased me as he put down the tip. “Hey, didn’t I pick up the tab on Mother’s Day, too?”

I quipped, “We picked up the tab on Mother’s Day and we picked up the tab tonight!”

2 Corinthians 12:14, “Everything is in readiness now for this, my third visit to you. But don’t worry about it; you won’t have to put yourselves out. I’ll be no more of a bother to you this time than on the other visits. I have no interest in what you have – only in you. Children shouldn’t have to look out for their parents; parents look out for the children.” The Message

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