You Make Beautiful Things

All this pain

I wonder if I'll ever find my way

I wonder if my life could really change at all?

All this earth

Could all that is lost ever be found

Could a garden come up from this ground at all?

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust,

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us.

All around

Hope is springing up from this old ground

Out of chaos life is being found in You.

These are the lyrics from a song by a little known band called Gungor.  Yeah, funny name, but I just love the song.  The image of a perfect God taking our messes, our hardships our troubles and our lostness and making it beautiful.  There is no doubt about it, God makes beautiful things out of the dust.

The Lord has been doing some beautiful things in my family's life and I think that it is time that I introduce you all to my brother.

Yes, I have a brother that came into my life about 4 years ago.  It is new, it is exciting, and surprising, but simply wonderful.  For those of you bursting with curiosity, I am not going to get into the details, they aren't important.  What is important is that the Lord has taken past events and turned them into beautiful things.  I have a brother, sister in law and a niece and nephew.

Mike, Kathy, Mikey and Maggie all came for a nice long visit this past week and we really did have a blast getting to know one another and catching up.  Mike is a big teaser and I kept on telling him that maybe it was a good thing we didn't meet till we were adults because I probably would have punched him too many times to count growing up.

Much of our time was spent letting the kids (especially mine) enjoy the horses up on the mountain.  They had a blast and Lily of course couldn't help but enjoy every minute.

She was especially cute when Memaw told her to hold onto Foxy while she grazed.  Lily did as she was told by holding onto the far end of the rope.

I could not take enough pictures of this little mess.  Too precious!

One of the days she got bored waiting to go riding with Memaw so she decided to get dirty instead.  I was simply amazed at how cute a dirty little girl could look.

We made a stop at Jumpstreet with all of the kids and took some time at the Broncos Stadium to get race packets for the Colfax Half Marathon.

It seemed like we rarely slowed down and the week went by in a blur.

It was nice because I hit the 36 week mark during their visit!  Ah, another milestone down!

This past week has brought to light the amazing redemptive power of the Cross and of Christ.  This week He redeemed a relationship, this week He made beautiful things out of the dust!