Glimpses of Green: Revised.

When I named this blog, it was an invitation to step into our lives. We are, after all, the Greens, and this was a glimpse into our daily. As I've continued to use this space, it's evolved into something a bit different, however. The name has taken on an entirely different meaning for me. So much of the past year or so of my life has been discovering what it means to embody the life of a new creation, and seeing how the extravagant love of God reaches into our world to make all things new. Through my eyes, these glimpses of green have become less about what the Greens are doing on a daily basis to more about the glimpses of renewal that God is creating. It's a glimpse into the greenery of new life that is springing up all around. Hope in darkness. Beauty in ugly messes. Love where hate makes more sense. I also see those glimpses of green in our everyday life as we raise our two littles. Surely it's there in sibling rivalry and reveling, the chaos of the terrible twos, and working through loving a spouse in word and action. But the green of renewal moves far beyond our front door, to a world where children are freed from the bondage of sex slavery, the hungry are fed, the no ones become someones, and the someones realize they're no ones.

When our lives are awakened to this new reality, there's no going back. Why would anyone ever trade the real for imitation? Once you taste the goodness of God, how can you ever settle for anything else? Yet we do.  All the time. We long for Egypt when we've already been set free. This space is for walking through it honestly, through doubts and questions and mistakes, knowing in our humanity we all are life-givers and takers. We're messy and beautiful. We're moving forward but are no closer to arriving. We're only given glimpses, small signposts to the reality of Kingdom life. The someday promise that God is going to completely restore all the brokenness of this world with his healing hand. All nations, all tongues, and tribes will rejoice together in his goodness....someday. For now, we see it in the fight against injustice and systems of oppression. We see it in creative solutions and those that choose to help the poor instead of exploit them. We see it in relationships that choose love over power struggles, and parenting our children patiently instead of exasperating them. Most of all, we hear it in the sweet name of Jesus, through the sacrifice of the cross, and the power of the resurrection by which all people are drawn to bow before the King. These are the glimpses of green that I want my life to inhabit.

So here, I'm camping out, learning as I go.

Always learning.

Always hoping.

Always searching.

And always praying that there's others who will join me.