Carpet Cleaner

 "Our souls were created for the perfection of paradise, but our journey here on earth is riddled with potholes and mud puddles. It it weren't, then we'd have no desire for our real home. We'd become so complacent here that we wouldn't press on toward heaven."

Yesterday we took Mo to the vet for his FINAL puppy vaccines. Peanut and I have been looking forward to him having all his shot so he can go places safely.

He was a decent car rider on the way to the vet. When we left the vet, he settled in and laid down on the back seat and looked like he might nap.

I make all his vet appointments at his nap time. He's used to being in his crate for a nap mid morning, and that's when we go to the vet. He's long since had his breakfast. He's run and played. He's ready to rest.

Peanut and I were talking about all the fun places we want to take Mo in a week (we have to wait one week for these vaccines to kick in).

And Mo threw up. EVERYWHERE. In my (still really new to me) car.

While a tiny part of me is hopeful that he'll outgrow it, most of me knows that's not how my life goes.

While we can definitely still take him places, it will involve a little more thought and planning and air freshner it seems.

It seems in all the things there is this GAP between the way it is and the way I wish it was.

Recently in a devotional I read a blurb about how God wants to fill these GAPS in your life. The author gave a few suggestions for how ( let it draw you closer to God, look at the gap through God's perspective, and remember the gap is temporary).

The author asserted the idea that the gaps will be closed.

I'm going to politely disagree based on my own experiences.

I am the QUEEN of what SD likes to call the "Norman Rockwell issue." I very much have a picture of how it all is supposed to go - it never looks perfect in mind, but it's a messy in a funny or light or enjoyable way.

And our life is never perfect, but it's usually messy in a hard, ugly, tough kind of way.

Not very Norman Rockwell.

More like vomit everywhere.

I've come to the conclusion that the GAP is where I am supposed to find my joy.

I'm living in the GAP.

Me, and all my people, and apparently my dog, will always be broken and messy folks in need of grace. And carpet cleaner.

If we spend all our time in the GAP praying to get out of it, or praying for it to look differently , or praying for something else - we miss the message IN the gap.

The gap is the place where we grow, where we learn, where we both receive and extend the love of Jesus.

Mama Warriors, as we wake on this beautiful Saturday morning, I encourage you to look for the joy in your gap today.

Peanut and I had big plans today - we've been looking forward to them for a while. Yesterday she had a little bit of an upset tummy so we decided it best to hunker down today, let her rest and nourish her immune system.

So while we aren't at the fun thing this morning we had hoped to be at, we are instead in the GAP.

And in the gap is Peanut in her mermaid tail blanket, curled up on my couch with the dog she desperately prayed for watching Saturday morning cartoons.

The gap can be beautiful too..............