Ashamed, I hesitate. It seems a poor gift for a King.

I offer it anyway. All of my longing, my emptiness, my helplessness.

And the Gracious One reminds me of another woman who gave him all of her nothingness, her entire poverty. He received it as a gift of everything.

For in this upside-down kingdom, it is not fullness, independence, sufficiency which the King seeks, but emptiness. Acceptance of our own inability.

“Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void.” (Simone Weil)

It is grace itself which makes this void. Do you hear the wonder in this truth? Grace, who himself empties us, will never turn from us in our brokenness. He waits instead to fill us with Himself.

And so tonight, this is my prayer for you: As you continue to surrender to this hand of grace which is emptying you still further, preparing space for Himself, may you also be wakened to the deepening of His own presence within you.