Among the Ruins

This is my view outside Latimer house where we’re staying while husband John is in meetings.  I know!  Pretty wonderful!  It looks a little like Downton Abbey but with trees around it, on a hill overlooking the Chess Valley in England.

Earlier I was in the library, but it is an unusually beautiful spring day and the English countryside kept whispering to me to come outside.

All that to say, I’m feeling very British-y.  Our cab driver in London actually said “Cheers, mate!” with a straight face.  I didn’t know that was an actual thing.

Yesterday we walked Oxford and now I’m longing to go back and re-read everything C.S. Lewis wrote.

I came across a quote from Lewis that really sums up what I’ve experienced over the past few weeks.

“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some to see.”

It seems lately I’ve been privileged to observe miracles written in small letters through the lives of brave friends around me, while I pray from the sidelines.   It is in these most painful times – times of injustice, and misunderstanding and wounding – when it seems all is in ruins.

But here’s the thing I’ve observed as I’ve watched the miracle of God redeeming several “ruins” of epic proportions around me:  In order for God to retell His miracles in small letters through us, it requires that we humble ourselves and remain completely grounded in the large miracle of our true identity.

Under the rubble of the ruins there is a firm foundation.  We are the beloved.  No matter what. Because of Jesus, nothing can separate us from that love, and no circumstances have the power to destroy that.

And so, another quote by another Brit – runner, Eric Liddell – has been ringing in my ears this week:

“Circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God’s plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins.” 

It has been such a reminder to me that every time we forgive, every time we look for the best, every time we humble ourselves, we are retelling in small letters the miraculous story of God, who is not helpless among the ruins.  And, oh how amazing…if maybe some will notice a difference and seek a closer look at the letters that have previously been too large for them to see!

We get to be a part of God’s miraculous restoration amongst the ruins!