[Note: The following was originally posted at "The Wright Place", Gretchen Wright's personal blog, where she regularly writes about life, family, food, and more. Gretchen is married to our Senior Pastor, Darrin Wright, has four kids, and has served our church family in a myriad of ways.]

I've been pondering a picture which, as I jot these words, hasn't actually been captured with a camera yet, but I pray that it will EVER remain in my heart.

Last week I wrote about my Man and I feeling at the end of our rope with house bother and stuff…I was wrong though, we were not quite at rope's end…later that same night we noticed that our air conditioner was not keeping up with the heat and humidity. The little kids slept on the couch that night because their room was too hot to handle and we, my Man and I, laid awake all night wondering what in the world we were gonna do as we listened to the AC unit outside our window churn and churn with no apparent result.

When morning dawned we were no cooler and no calmer but we decided to call on our church family's resident "conditioned air" expert who arrived at our home in short order, diagnosed the problem and just as he was telling us how to fix it, another "I'll-be-right-there-to-help-you-out" member of our church family appeared and soon provided the necessary equipment to fix us all up.

The next morning, I woke up to the coolest, crispest, conditioned air ever AND a raging case of all-over-poison-ivy which I'd picked up on Monday while digging in the yard…

…cue "end-of-rope music."

But when you, because of your precarious position at the end of the rope,
are in danger of just letting go of that rope…

God sends The Rope Givers.

People who offer to deliver emergency ice cream to your door.

Others who invite you to come away for a while and open their pool to you.

Some who take time out from their own much bigger struggle
and hand you help to make things easier.

Another who lets you shed a tear or two into their otherwise calm
and happy existence and shows you sweet compassion.

People who text you with the perfect words at the perfect time
to make you grin or to laugh aloud
or to simply tell you that they are praying for you.

Friends who ask you how it's going
even when they know your answer isn't going to be fun to endure.

Someone who brings a great big truck to haul away your mess
and others who show up to help you fill it up.

There are those who bring pie...

…and some who take your kids.

{Award for Best Shirt for the Occasion}

Friends who bring dessert and stay to help with dinner.

Those who will answer their phone even when they know it's you calling
and they show up with buckets full of tools and time and talents and a pressure washer.

Dear ones who can make poison ivy disappear and take its itch away…

…and there are those who show up

… with shovels

…and wheelbarrows

…and smiles?!

These are all The Rope Givers.

I've taken my picture, the one I'd only, till now had in my head…

It's more than just a picture of shovels and pickaxes…

…it's work done and more promised tomorrow.

…it's encouragers checking in…again.

…it's folks with better things to do, putting my short rope on their radar
and showing up again and again and again with cookies and shovels and trucks
and time and energy and effort and…

rope

...enough to hang on to for a long time to come.

#sothankful

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.
Hebrews 10:24

For more posts from Gretchen, you can follow her at her blog and on Twitter.