small miracles

I've always wanted to be the kind of person who sent Christmas cards annually. Maybe even with a little newsletter chronicling the previous year of my life updating friends and family with the revolving door of jobs I've had and cities I've lived in. This year I am halfway there. I am creating cards using a sketch I did of Lucy about a year ago. She looks so peaceful here. Of course most of my sketches of her are sleeping ones since that is the only time she is still enough for me to draw. I also think this sketch reflects how the holidays would be in my ideal world - slower, lazier, with enough time to enjoy the small miracles we so often take for granted. I hope you are able to enjoy a Christmas like that. Me? I'm going to go enjoy this little miracle with a game of fetch and a short snooze on the couch.

staring into grace

I read an article today about Kevin Connolly, a photographer born with no legs who goes around the world taking pictures of the stares that he gets from people. I read the article out of curiosity, which interestingly enough, is the exact same human intuition to which the artist attributes the stares. What stuck with me most from reading about Connolly was that he was not offended by people's stares. It did not make him feel less human. He did not get angry when people's gazes lingered trying to take in the differences they saw. Instead, he chose to recognize a fact that seems so obvious, but one that we often miss: people are human. We're curious. We want to know. It's natural.

How many times did Jesus feel the same way? All around him people stared at, mocked, even attacked him because of his differences. He was unlike anything they had seen. But he knew that they were imperfect. Flawed. Human. And not only did he choose to accept them, he chose to love them. That's grace.

http://www.therollingexhibition.com/