Grace Flows Down

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

Almost two months ago my tongue became tied and my heart began to work overtime. In the last month preparing for the birth of our third sweet little one, I was unable to connect the flood of thoughts in my head and emotions from my heart with my fingers and this keyboard. I've just kept telling myself that while Mary was treasuring and pondering, had she had one, Mary's blog would have been silent for a season as well...

So today as I stare at our precious three-week-old, I will try once again to skim the surface of the depths of my gratitude and express in words, what I have treasured up, been pondering in my heart.

Grace continues to flow down and cover us.

Our dear Lord added more grace to our family on July 6th in the wee, wee hours of the morning with the arrival of our third sweet daughter, Charis Elisabeth. Surprising us all, our little one was quite little, a mere 4 lbs 9oz. As she was whisked off to NICU, my midwife reminded me with such authority that Charis is fearfully and wonderfully, made exactly as her Creator intended. And in the last three weeks, she has demonstrated to us, an NICU and to many doctors that it doesn't matter what textbooks say, what matters is what God proclaims. And dear ones, she is indeed fearfully and wonderfully made.

As we prayed over what our next child should be named, from the beginning we felt confident that if it were a girl, her name would be Charis. Pronounced "Care-iss," her name is the Greek word, meaning "grace" and Elisabeth meaning "Promise of God" or "God is my oath."

As with each of our children, we want Charis to understand the depths of God's love for His children and pray that her name will be just a tip-of-the-iceberg-reminder of the grace that has been given us and that her life will be the primary evidence of His goodness. For He is Good.

And we pray that she will know well that:

God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

~Ephesians 2:4-10


The very short three weeks of her life thus far have already taught us more about our Lord, His grace, His hand of mercy and the abundance of His blessings. Knowing more of Him, makes us just want to know more. And the same goes for our Charis...we just can't get enough of her.

As for her dear sisters...they can't get enough of her either.


Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one's youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!

~ Psalm 127:3-4