Enormous Grace

The short and sweet...
For so long, we've been dealing with the effects and consequences of addiction. Trust me, residential treatment is not fun. When needed, it's a Godsend, but it's never the ideal. (I suppose the ideal is not needing it in the first place!) And it's very, very hard on the family, at least in our case. So, there's this difficult place where we've been living--on one hand, we knew RT was necessary. On the other, we all felt incomplete--like missing a limb might be, like a small death had occurred (are there any small deaths?). Something needed to be done, but the sacrifice showed, in all of us. Then Sky bombed out of RT, went to JDC, and we waited to find out what the judge would do.

Sky is home.

It is not a perfect solution. We still have therapy to go to, meetings, work at home. We have a covenant to both live up to and uphold. There is risk. Great risk.

But there is something more, something so difficult to put into words, and something the professionals in our lives do not understand, or at least, do not dare embrace, because there is Great Risk.

It is Enormous Grace.

Grace--"unmerited favor" "getting what you don't deserve" "not getting what you do deserve"

Do you ever wonder what happened after the Father welcomed home the Prodigal? We know about the Older Brother. We know how the Father felt. But we don't get to see any further into the Prodigal's story. Perhaps it's because Jesus knows each of us is a prodigal, and we all will be able to finish the story for ourselves. We have all turned from home, gone our own way, thought we knew better...

Rebelled.

And those of us who have returned, have left again. And again.
Maybe the second and the third and the fourth times, we went less and less far away, or maybe we went even farther.

But at some point, we received
Enormous Grace.

The Father was waiting, for the son to return. He wrapped his cloak around him, called for the feast, welcomed his son home with a joyous proclamation.
I wonder, did the Enormous Grace the Father showed change the Prodigal? Did he finally understand just how much his Father loved him? Did he ever want to leave again?

Sky was stunned by the judge's decision. Sky was stunned we'd want him home. Sky is just beginning to remember what home is, and why he'd want to be here.

Enormous Grace.

How sweet the sound.