Knot It Back

How many mornings have you Moms (or Dads), begun your days something like this: with children who are angry their favorite shirt is not clean,  cereal that has been spilt, children's attitudes that are horrific, the gas gage reading "5 miles till empty", and it's raining outside without any sight of your child's rain jacket.

I had no experiences with mornings like this as a child.

JOKE! I think everyone has, and usually Sunday mornings are the worst. And even as the most refined, poised, calm and loving child, (note the enormous amount of sarcasm) I had my mornings that everything EVERYONE in our house did, wanted me to never come home.

We all have those days that any word, question or gesture makes us angry- and because of our irritability and utter turmoil, we choose to back away. We choose to distance ourselves from the irritation and frustration. We choose to ignore questions, or answer in only "yes" and "no".  And sometimes we even stay in our rooms during supper... I mean, so I've researched.

I ran across an excerpt from a book about the Jewish celebration, Rosh Hashanah. The Rabbi writing described an image that I loved, that I want to share with all of you, to bring you hope after these bad days we choose to distance ourselves. The tradition Rabbi Elkins writes about describes that when every human is born, they are connected to God by a rope. But, every time we sin and screw up, when our bad attitudes become bad mornings- which then turn into bad days, the rope breaks.

BUT, once the rope is broken, it doesn't have to stay broken. It can be retied and knotted, again and again and we can reclaim our connection to God. What happens when that rope is knotted with lots of knots? Does it lengthen, or does it shorten? It shortens. Which means, when we mess up, screw up, don't do what is right, but try to reclaim our relationship with God, the rope becomes shorter- drawing us closer and closer to God.


What IF, this tradition asks, our short comings and mistakes were the things that drew us closer to God, rather than push us away? What if through our imperfection, we were able to know more of God, not less?

What if this is was the image we used when knowing how to love people?

Grace.

I am guilty of writing people off, and cutting the rope forever, without real intent of knotting it back. That's very scary for me to share with all of you, for you to know that dirty part of my heart.  Grace in relationships isn't natural. Grace in parenting isn't natural. On bad days, it's more natural for all of us to pull away and welcome the distance between us and the other person.

But, God consistently demonstrates the opposite to us. He comes closer. His love isn't restrained by our sin. Or our mess. Or our grumpiness. He desires every day to shorten the rope. He reconciles us to Himself over and over. When you think about it, there may be no other area in our lives, where we have a better opportunity to act like the Lord does. How we handle the hard days, can be definitive of how we show the love of God to others. Will we choose to cut the rope for good? Or will we choose to knot it back up, beckoning people back into our lives with grace and mercy?