Melted

"Mom, I said I wanted butter on it!"

4 year old is all huffy, and I've had enough.  Warm bread sliced and buttered, can I help it that the butter melts and she can't see?  I tell her just to eat it and turn my back.

She sighs mightily and stalks into the dining room holding her plate.  Big sister comes alongside and gently places one arm around her shoulders.  My ears prick up to hear the sister sermon:

"Fiona, the butter's still there.  You just can't see it.  When the bread is all heated up, the butter melts away.  See? You can't see it because the butter is inside the bread."

Its been quite a week, one that makes your heart heavy and makes you wonder where?  Where is the goodness?  Babies with cancer, husbands dying and leaving broken-hearted wives and children.  Each status update sears my heart and I can't help but ask Him: Where are you?

But her words stick in my mind long after Fiona has gobbled the last crumb of that butter-infused bread.

Even when you can't see Him, He's there.  When things heat up, even.  His heart, melted right there on the inside.

"...and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

~Matthew 28:20

She brings me her crumb scattered plate and smiles up at me, and in her eyes I can see it - heart full of melted grace.

Pray with me? For a friend's son, diagnosed with leukemia on his 4th birthday.  For another friend at the death of her husband. {Thank you.}