She’s in tears when she picks me up, her lateness, to her, the latest in the string that proclaims her a failure. To me, she’s God’s love with skin on, and the extra ten minutes just makes the gift all the greater on this day when I’m moving slowly.
But I know tears well, and the feeling that surely by now I should be able to get it all together.
Daily I click past the posts of people who seem to have it all together but cry healing tears over those where grace shines through the cracks. Why do I still fight to let others see my own cracks?
The LORD is my portion and it’s his own blessed brokenness that we eat at the table. If I no longer live but he lives in me should I be surprised when it’s my broken places that are taken and blessed and broken still further and given to feed those hungry for grace?
Maybe true healing is less about getting past our need of grace than about getting past our surprise that we still need it.
Every day I’m hungry for grace. Grace to forgive and grace to heal and grace to feed my own hunger and the hunger of those around me. And just when I wonder whether it’s okay to ask for one more helping of grace, the words arrive and I find grace not just pursuing me but running ahead to set the table in the presence of my enemies.
“Grace always asks if you want more. I laugh . . . and say sure, and all you have to do is say yes, and I stick my plate out for another helping.” (Ann Voskamp)
The black-capped chickadees eat the seeds right out of the sunflowers, grace laid before them on golden plates. The grasses all bow in gratefulness, and the petals hungrily cup each drop of grace offered.
“Maybe true healing is less about getting past our need of grace than about getting past our surprise that we still need it.”
So true! Is this a quote?
Either way, thanks! Needed to hear this. 🙂
Love your posts, Care!
Thanks so much, Graham. Re quote, no, that line came out of my own conversation with God (as far as I know . . . though I seem to soak up bits of what I hear and they get mixed in with everything else in my head and sometimes reappear in a slightly different form without my remembering where they came from, so I’m sure I’m indebted to any number of people somewhere along the line!)
I totally understand. I often feel like many of my ‘original’ ideas were actually planted months or years earlier. But maybe that’s not the point. Maybe we should be thrilled that the Spirit is working in us, helping us ‘soak’ ideas and encouragement from others so that we can pass them along.
Still, that is a fantastic quote that I’m going to memorize … and credit you whenever I use it! 😀
Thanks so much for your posts!
Love the way you said that re the Spirit working in us, “helping us ‘soak’ ideas and encouragement from others so that we can pass them along.” So true!
hi, I should have said a long time ago that I love reading your posts, was thinking that there should be a book in there somewhere?! They have been a big encouragement for me – a dose of truth in the day… Thank you!
Thanks, Liz. I’m so glad.
Hi Love,
I also loved the line Graham picked out and also hope to memorize it (though remembering anything seems to be getting harder!) but it was this thought that hit me with fresh understanding. “… it’s [the Lord’s] own blessed brokenness that we eat at the table. If I no longer live but he lives in me should I be surprised when it’s my broken places that are taken and blessed and broken still further and given to feed those hungry for grace?” That is profound, and without negating “By his wounds we are healed” helps me understand Col. 1:24.
Your ever-loving, ever-in-greater-need-of-grace Mom
Thanks, Mom. Yes, I’ve heard Col 1:24 taught as referring to the hardships faced in getting the gospel out to people (i.e. “what is still lacking” is getting the news out). Just this week I’ve been wondering whether that might extend beyond the shipwrecks and persecution that Paul experienced to our everyday challenges of living grace-fully in our particular situations. They’re all ways of showing and telling the good news, aren’t they?