Here's the dirt

I had purposed to blog at least once a month.  Somehow April slipped away from me.  The upcoming season should afford greater blogging opportunities.

May is always an anticipatory month for us.  A lot of our service commitments end in May.  Our anniversary is in May.  And this month always heralds the end of the school year for my work.  Yes, May is eagerly anticipated as the beginning of rest for this busy life.

This May is a particular milestone for us as it marks our 5th anniversary.  Wow.  When a child, 5 years seemed exceedingly long.  I lived in my first Canadian city for 5 years and it felt very long at the time.  Likely because I felt rooted there as a young child.  High school is 5 years long and throughout those years, I'd looked forward to its end.  I wouldn't 'do-over' those 5 formative years if given the hypothetical opportunity though I don't think I'd change them either.  Those years were fodder for learning about God & myself, even if the lessons only made sense in hindsight.

Another formative event that marks this particular May season is our neighbourhood presence.  Since the arrival of Spring, the outside space of our property has been taking shape reflecting our desire to be firmly ensconced and established in this community.  We *love* living here.  We love the general concern and friendliness of those living around us.  We love seeing our space transform into a place loved and enjoyed by people.  It's good witness, without words - I'm certain.

In this Spring season of growth, renewal and life, each moment has been a reminder of how miraculous our lives have been and will continue to be.  We live by His grace.  Often the manifestation of this amazing grace is through our spiritual lives, and sometimes realized by our emotions and our relationships.  At least, these are the instances where I most easily recognize the grace extended to me.

But when there are holes in my knowledge regarding the person of God, He fills them according to His time and revelation.  Living by grace overflows into many other areas of life.  This time, God showed how His grace impacts our lives in very practical ways.

As new homeowners, there is quite a learning curve to traverse especially when the said home is more or less a blank slate.  So many ideas pouring out, swimming around, floating from head to head.  Sometimes, these ideas become reality and sometimes these ideas turn out to be mistakes.  The latter happened over here at our humble duplex.  In one swift afternoon, what remained of our presentable-but-not-exactly-ideal-front-lawn became an eyesore.

Witness what I called, the mud hole: (welcome to our mud hole)

All that you see is the handiwork of a couple of Irishmen who we employed to pave our driveways.  Excited to have access to their machinery, they were asked by the homeowners to use their handy dandy bobcat to massacre our front yard.

This would cost us thousands of dollars to take care of and improv upon.  Either that or the rest of this and next season would see us relying on our existing resources (i.e. wheelbarrows, shovels, FIL's pick up, and our own manual labour).

Enter Grace.  Or more specifically, her husband Eldon, a good family friend whom from hereon in I'll refer to as TGIE - Thank God it's Eldon.  I'm not being facetious - we have seen first hand how practical God's grace extends through our friend.  TGIE came with his existing resources (truck, hydraulic lift trailer, caterpillar machinery, access to good dirt, and his brilliant ideas & extensive experience) to help us fix our mistake in an afternoon & a half.

TGIE in action: (note the beautiful, rich soil compared to the original mud hole colour.  yikes.)

God is so gracious to these new home owning newbies.  Condos provide some aspects of the home ownership experience.  But not exactly in the realm of home landscaping experience.

To God be the Glory.  Thank you for providing gracious, loving friends to enrich our lives and our dirt.  He is definitely a practical God.  Amen.