Brody was asleep, and because Lilli was off school on Monday, the two of us spent his naptime hours together. We brought down some games from upstairs and jumped in with gusto. Girlfriend LOVES games.

Toward the end of his naptime, and of the last game, she stood back and looked at all the pieces of several games splayed out in front of us. Since we’d moved from one game to the next without cleaning up in between, it was quite a spectacle.

“Wow, Mimmie. What we have here is one MESSY life! I’m gonna need some HELP cleaning THIS up!”

One messy life.

I’ve never heard her put that phrase together but I was completely taken with it. My STARS but she’s right. This IS a messy, messy life, is it not?

As beautiful as life is, it is also (at least in my universe) one mess after another. Rarely does anything come together in the form of a newly-packaged board game, instead looking much like after you’ve played and are trying to fit it back in the box the way it came.

Fortunately for Lilli, she had a ready helper, sorting the pieces to each game, and fitting them as best she could, back into the box. We, too, are fortunate, because we also have a Ready Helper. Thank God (literally), because we would be in a dire straights without Him. The messes we create – the REAL messes – are not something we can clean up on our own.

When you find yourself staring in dismay at the messy life around you, name it for what it is and cry out. Help is on the way.

But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done.  ~ 1 John 1:9 NCV