Patch and Mem.

I'm a combination of screaming and hushed. Screaming because the fullness of the abundance of God's heart is so stunning that I can't hold it in. Hushed because I am so in awe of His creative, redemptive power that my human words can't fill in the fullness. This crib is almost 30 years old. I remember the raw excitement as young Lea and Damon explored Crib n Carriage in Knoxville, TN for our very first crib. As I stroke these keys, I can hear the lullabies playing, I can see the mobile spinning over the top of the crib, I can see each of 3T straining to raise their neck up just enough to look over the honey bunny bumper when we would come in after nap time was over. I can smell that baby hair, feel that jerky neck whip as they learned to hold their head up and I envision them rubbing their face in their curled up fists because they were ready to be back in their crib for sleep or crying.

Robert Taylor, James Trent and Damon Trey all slept in this crib. It truly is a set apart place. A crib is where a newborn spends a large portion of their new life. Eat, sleep. Poop, sleep. Play, sleep. Church, sleep. Target, sleep. Bath, sleep. Cry, sleep. Very consistent really. Yes. It really is set apart. Take in all of those crib moments that Trinity is preparing this new heart to meet Them. I want to think about that for a long time. CRIB....a place where Papa is Cultivating Righteousness In Baby. All of the moments where baby is being grown, tended, and spoken into by their Creator. And then it gets really, really personal because it's specific. It's the ones you named. Trey, Trent and Taylor all lived hours of their new lives in this very crib.

And then crib season is over. Time for big boy beds. You don't need a crib anymore, so it comes down. There is a part of you that breathes a deep sigh that the crib stage is over. The crib stage is a lot. It's beautiful and it's trying. It's intimate and it's tiring. So, you sigh because you made it. And............. you grieve because it's over. The relief sigh and the grieving tears both belong. And you linger holding onto one another. And the crib gets packed in the closet and then to a storage facility in a move and then into an attic area and then tucked into the garage. And you wonder if you will ever keep up with the 8 springs that work the sliding sides of the crib as it moves from space to space, house to house.

And then, almost 30 years later, that crib is being called into duty again. Taylor and Ashley are expecting their first child in the beginning of 2020! Thus the scream and the hush. A new member of God's Kelly Grove is coming. We are excited, hopeful, humbled and in awe. We are praying for baby and mom and dad. What a hidden work of faith to get to pray for this new life. I want that role with Lea. God knows what any new children in this Grove will call Lea and me. While we wait to hear, I have declared myself "Patch" and Lea has announced herself "Mem". Patch and Mem are waiting. Patch and Mem are excited. Patch and Mem are in awe. Patch and Mem are praying.

I took this picture one Sabbath afternoon as Mem and I put this sacred spot together again, just so we could explain it's assembly to the new parents. It is now assembled and awaiting a new generation in Taylor and Ashley's home in Nashville. Advent is close. We're waiting for a new life.

YYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh.

We found all 8 springs.

There's more.