scones from heaven

today felt like a holy day, an other-worldly glimpse into how rich is God's grace in our lives.

 my mother-in-law invited us to tea at her house--she invited me, my four girls and my mom to come, have tea and pray for each girl, a kind of send-off into this new time in each of their lives.  (erica and lauren to college, tessa into her junior year with her driver's license, maddie beginning junior high.)

the table was beautifully set.  china tea cups and saucers, flowers, an array of tea sandwiches, fresh fruit, homemade scones, and a tea-party favor set at each plate.  but to me the most beautiful things on the table were the place cards.  alan's dad, who died four years ago, had made some place cards for another tea lavonne gave years ago.  there were extras, which she saved.  she had just recently found them again, stored in a plastic baggie in her china cabinet.  little teapots hand-drawn with colored pencil on folded file cards.  enough for each of us to have one.  (dad-who was always drawing--pictures just like himself, full of whimsy, color and life--on whatever he could get his hands on.) how could we have planned a better way for him to be with us today?

after lunch, around the table, we prayed.  my mom drew their names out of a teacup, one by one.  and we all prayed for their protection, their faith, their choices, their fears. 

 lauren. tessa. maddie. erica. 

to say i am thankful for these two women in my life--my two moms, my daughters' two grandmothers, who love God, who love each other, who love me and their granddaughters and pray for us daily--feels inadequate.

as a mother, they are giving me a most precious gift. both of them, providing a foundation beneath me, praying for the Spirit's guidance, which i sense all around me, being the model to watch before me, passing on the heart of their faith to my daughters--that Jesus Christ, Savior and King, is worth living our lives for. 

And they do it so faithfully, lovingly, with beauty and grace and laughter and scones.