A Green Thankful

We are in Austin. We’ve been here for approximately four hours.

There’s a lot I’d like to reflect on, but I’ll be honest here: I’m exhausted. So I’ll tell you what I added to my thankful list yesterday and today as we drove across Texas to Austin.

This state is bone-dry. And in the midst of the biggest heat wave in 70 years, there have been a lot of fires. In fact, my hometown (Amarillo) had no fireworks this past 4th of July because of fire danger. So on our drive the past two days my mom and I weren’t shocked to see patches of burned land. What we were surprised by was the grass growing back in that blackened ground-scar. While every piece of grass nearby is a dying, crispy yellow, the grass sprouting out of that fire stained ground is the brightest, softest sort of green.

You know, I saw those new signs of life in the ruined ground and thought of my friends battling death and brokenness in their physical bodies. Life comes out of destruction; green out of black. So, I zoomed past those patches of earth at 70 miles an hour (Texas speed limit!) and thanked God that redemption is his word, his creation. He still owns redemption. He still heals and restores and brings order out of chaos.

This girl is thankful.

PS Lance’s condition has been improving over the past two days. Thank you for praying! For more information, read here.