Jesus and red socks

It is wild how the Lord shows up at some of the most unexpected moments in my life. It's encouraging that my busyness and lack of belief does not keep Him from continuing to pursue me and show up. I am in awe at how He reveals Himself in the most simple and surprising ways. Tonight I saw Christ in my 4-year old. I was so overwhelmed with doing the afternoon routines alone (my husband flew out of town after lunch)...doing dinner, loading the dishwasher, breaking up arguments, wiping noses, telling the boys to stop jumping off furniture, finding lost toys, helping little ones in and out of their various costumes, telling the boys again to stop jumping off the furniture, shooing the dog out of the way, dealing with tantrums...on and on. I finally sat on the floor to read the book that my 16-month old had been banging on my knee for the past 5 minutes. Well, just then, the 2-year old decides he'd like for me to go get him some red socks to match his red pjs. I told him "not now, Mommy will put on your red socks at bedtime." I went back to reading the book to MG and I heard JK run down the hall and start bumping around in his brother's room. Without missing a beat, JK runs back into the den with a pair of red socks for his little brother and says "Look C, here's your red socks...now come over here so I can put them on." It was so cute to hear C say "ok" and jump down out of the chair and run to sit down in front of his brother with his little piggies sticking up for big brother. Seeing my 4-year patiently put on each sock was too sweet for words. His willingness to serve his little brother in such a way moved me to tears--not just a little misty-eyed kind of tears either! This little sock-fest brought Mommy down! I literally threw my glasses off and buried my head in my hands and boo-hood! It wasn't just out of relief that someone else got the red socks, but because I saw Christ in my son...Jesus was using him to serve his brother and me in such a simple and sweet way. How cool to see Him in something as simple as red socks. If it weren't for His love for me and Him showing up in my life, I think I'd spiral into despair. Life is hard, but praise God that He shows up and that He is good!