A "Favorited" Tweet

One of my deepest passions and the focus of the majority of this ministry is that we are to be remade in Christ.  That every day in a million tiny ways that add up to a trillion important spiritual stakes in our lives we are being remade.  Not thrown out or destroyed, but quit the opposite – made holy because that is just the goodness of the King we serve.  We are invited by the Lord as Peter says, “to be holy, for I am holy” {1 Peter 1:16}.  I have a zealous passion that is rarely deterred or disrupted that all of the children of God would be set free to know that their lives are merely being fashioned into the likeness of God.  It is a transformation into more and more glory.  Ultimately it is a beautiful opportunity to allow the grace of Christ to gift us with life abundant over and over again.  No matter the depths of our sorrow, our pasts, our dramatic stories, or our seemingly insignificant heart longings.It all matters a great deal to your Creator.  All of it.  He uses it all to remake us every day in a million different ways.  And don’t be too quick to overlook the blessing of the seemingly insignificant.  “Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow concerns of life are not ordained of God; they are as much of God as the profound.” {Oswald Chambers, My Utmost} Over and over again in my life it seems to be those tiny, almost centimeter wide, experiences where if I allow Christ to invade I see a transformation of immense value take place.  Today was one of those days.The preparations began early this morning.  Turkey and dressing, of course…but I am recalling the early preparations that took front row in my four year old daughter’s heart this morning.  Taking center stage to my Ainsley’s Thanksgiving celebration was the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and the Fierce Five.  The USA golden girls – Aly Raisman, Jordan Wieber, McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas and Kayla Ross.  The DVR was set, blankets were laid out and the tiny gymnast watched intently waiting for that divine moment to race across the television screen – team USA gymnastics waving proudly above a float.  I had gotten all peeps situated and gone downstairs to finish getting ready before lunch.  An hour past and as I was folding up the tossed clothes from our suitcases I hear a few quiet footsteps creep into our bedroom and a pretty little girl slip softly onto the bed beside me. “We missed them.  We watched the whole thing and we never saw them.  The whole thing, Momma and we never saw Aly Raisman.”  Then the sweetest, softest tears welled up in her navy blue eyes and started to roll down her precious cheeks. {You know the tears I’m talking about all you mommas out there….the kind of tears that make you want to spend every last dime you have, catch a flight to Boston, MA and be the crazed woman knocking on Aly Raisman’s front door – The kind of tears that make you want to move heaven and earth to set her precious world back right!}  I scooped her up and let her treasurable little tears run down her cheeks for a moment.  I heard her beloved heart without her saying a single word.  I knew because in other ways and at other times I had said the same thing to myself “It might seem silly, but it was really important to me.  I really don’t want to make it a big deal, but I feel really disappointed.” – Haven’t you said that before?So like any momma I got her thinking about something else and focused her heart on a new project.  Got her some marshmallows and a coke {I mean she is a girl J} and went to work.  Immediately Toby and I started searching YouTube and Tweeting a cry for help in finding a video of the Fierce Five on a Macy’s Float.  Crazy what we will do as parents to love that place in our kiddos hearts that just makes ‘em tick…you know that place that just calls out something deep.  That place that only you as an engaged parent can pick up – again, you’d move heaven and earth to keep them clinging to that prized place in their hearts.In some divine moment of exchange I sent a tweet to Aly Raisman asking for something back for my dear little gymnast who missed seeing them in the parade along with a picture of my heart and soul, my Ainsley. By the mercy of heaven she “favorited” back.  To the masses of people in the world that “favorite” wouldn’t mean a hill of beans in their realities, but to my precious baby girl’s dreamer heart it sent her to the moon.  {Scored me some pretty awesome ‘cool mom’ points too which is an added bonus to this little story J} To this momma it was victory in redeeming a simple, small, miniscule place resting deep in the heart of her daughter – that if given the space to grow….well, I think she could change the world.It was a perfect “teachable moment” for mom and daughter.  Her squeals and smiles said it all.  After our family of gymnastic enthusiasts had regained consciences we raced to the bathroom to dry our “happy tears” and I gathered her face in my hands.The convo went something like this:Me:  “Ainsley, I am so glad you trusted me enough to tell me your disappointments about not seeing Aly Raisman at the parade.  I know you felt nervous to tell me and didn’t know if that should be a big deal or not.  You are so very precious to hardly ever make a big deal out of things for yourself, so I know it was really important to you.  Thank you for telling me.  By you telling me momma and daddy could help make it better.  If you would’ve never told us we never would have known it made you sad.”Ainsley {tears of the most victorious joy at this point}:  “Thank you momma.”Me: “Baby girl, I want you to know that is exactly what Jesus wants us to do with Him.  Big or small HE wants to know everything about us {this is where I begin to parent myself and hear the Lord say ‘Cari, I hope you are listening to yourself J}.  Today is a perfect example of how the enemy meant to harm your cherished heart and steal your joy, Jesus turned it around to blow your mind and have Aly Raisman “favorite” your adorable tweet.  Every part of your heart matters to Jesus, Ainsley – every part.”Ainsley{HUGE smile across her face}: I know it does, I just know it does….Momma, I really did hear Jesus tell me to tell you about the parade.  I love you! {At this point she is squeezing my neck with hugs and I am now the one bawling!}Ainsley was remade today.  I was remade today.  The Father is so intently looking to and fro to protect and love His own.  It might not have ended the way it did today with Aly Raisman favoriting Ainsley’s tweet {Aly has 473.6K Twitter followers} Ainsley might have had to navigate disappointment over not seeing what she had hoped to see and felt unredeemed…however, the Lord would never have left her “un-remade”.  With her heart so tenderly submitted and honest, God’s character is provoked to action on her behalf.  For today the Lord established His care over Ainsley’s heart big and small.  The sad truth is that to us “mature adult types” a child not having seen gymnasts waving on a float in NYC would seem so very insignificant.  And yet to my Ainsley it was extremely important.  To her that met something outside herself, something bigger than she can possibly comprehend or touch this very moment meant the whole shebang to her Thanksgiving celebrations.  God out did Himself today.  He has a way of doing that on the regular if we will only let Him.  God knew Ainsley better than she knew herself.  God knew me today better than I knew myself as a parent.  Whether Ainsley grows up to be a gymnast, a writer, a teacher, a painter, a doctor, a song writer…it’s no matter.  What mattered today is that Ainsley felt the song she sings, “Jesus loves me” – all of me.  He showed His Divine grace and understanding in something I could have easily passed off as insignificant, and yet His Glory appeared to Ainsley and me today as we knelt in the bathroom hugging after reading a random tweet “favorite”.  Don’t discount the ordinary, it just might become extraordinary….you just need to ask.“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:26-28