It snowed in Atlanta a couple of days ago, settling into our world and studio garden with a shimmering, white drape that lounged over tree limbs, moss, and fences.
Even our bird houses slipped under snowy embellishments.
And tree boughs cradled the white wonder with gentle embraces.
It was a silent, serene covering of grace that seemed to soften everything that was hard, ugly and beat-up underneath.
Outside our studio garden though, the world was seeing a different picture of Atlanta.
This snowfall ushered in one of the biggest traffic jams in history for our city and tales of unimaginable challenges have sifted in today in a steady stream. Cars, stalled for hours, filled with mothers, fathers, children, babies, elderly, handicapped, sick and hungry have shivered along the roadways throughout the night and into this day. The 7 hour drive home, normally 15 minutes, by one of our own, pales in comparison to what others endured last night.
And yet, in the midst of all this misery, we've heard reports of grace that, like this snow, seem to soften some of the hard moments people have endured. Stories of people bringing water, food, and supplies to stranded drivers, of others opening up their homes to strangers for a place to rest and warm up, of restaurants closing their cash registers and serving food to the hungry, of Dads and Moms walking miles to be with their children stranded at schools overnight, of devoted teachers staying with students throughout the night, and of a gentle soul who created a facebook page that helped so many. You just have to read the stories @ Snowed Out Atlanta
The list goes on an on with these random acts of kindness that settled in between some of the very hard spots, and very hard moments that have occurred in Atlanta these last two days.
It's as if GRACE has just wrapped itself around our city through these acts of kindness. Softening some of the rough, hard edges of the lives stretched out on these roads. And right smack in the middle of it, as if to remind us all of how powerful GRACE can be, a baby was born, on one of these treacherous stretches of road. In harsh, cold conditions, the grace of God came down, covering all the things that weren't perfect, and allowed a beautiful, tender, little baby girl to be born. Perfectly.
And her name? Why, it's Grace, of course.
To remind us of God's grace, that softly falls and covers hard places with unexpected beauty.
Read more about little Grace here:
Praying for those affected by the snow,
Grateful for those who made it home,
The Velvet Lime Girls
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
