Have you ever thought about God’s gentleness? I mean, really thought about it? I hadn’t. At least, not until this week.

I think a lot about His power, His provision, His might. I think about His goodness and faithfulness. But gentleness? Not so much.

This was a tough week. My grandfather passed into eternity super early Wednesday morning. And we found out our van needs an additional $500 in repairs. We are “weary and heavy laden” as Jesus describes in Matthew 11:28.

But in Matthew 11:29, Jesus describes Himself. He says, among other things, “I am gentle…”

Gentle. Like how we held Hudson when he was born 6 months ago. Like how I brush Clara’s hair out of her face while she dances in the living room. Like how I put bandaids on Ruth and kiss owies.

Gentle.

Every hard thing in life – every failed transmission and person leaving this world – passes through the gentle hands of our Savior. He takes our yoke – our heavy laden burden – and gently replaces it with one that is easy and light. He holds us gently. He brushes obstructions gently out of the way. He fixes our owies gently.

So yes, it was a tough week. We are mourning the end of a life. We are seeking God’s provision in a really focused way. We are waiting to see what He does.

But we serve a Gentle God who walks with us through it all.

So what else this week?

We celebrated Clara’s second birthday on Saturday with a Two-tti Fruitti birthday party in our backyard!

We celebrated with fruit…

Opened fun presents…

Uncle Jeff was in town to hang out with, Clara colored with Aunt Betty, and hung out with Calvin…

And we all said “Yay, friends!”

Thank you to everyone near and far who celebrated our girl with us!

On Sunday, the Lord provided 1/5 of the money we need for our transmission through a dear friend of ours, who showed up unannounced at our house with a wad of $20 bills. We are so thankful and humbled by his gift.

Later, Clara and Ruth teamed up to perform a great little duet together…

… just like the song Allen sang in church on Sunday.

On Monday, we toured a little preschool for Ruth to attend this fall. She seems excited… especially about the big playground outside.

And Hudson went swinging for the first time and loved it!

We had some new friends over for dinner on Tuesday and old friends over for dinner on Thursday. We really enjoy sharing a meal with people and hearing what the Lord is doing in their lives. We share a little more about that in this post from earlier in the week.

On Thursday, the Lord provided another $1,800 toward our transmission repairs, putting us at about 2/3 of our total need. We are so thankful for how He has provided and are expectantly waiting for Him to provide the rest.