Grace for Your Journey

Last week in worship I had a vision in which I saw Jesus standing tall, looking at each of us. His eyes blazed with light, his mouth wide with a smile.  Individual beams of light shown out from his eyes, each directed towards a person, straight and unwavering. I realized these beams of light were illuminating each person’s path, with God radiating His love and affection towards them, while at the same time drawing the person back to Himself.  Occasionally a person would get distracted or lose focus and wander off this “narrow” path for whatever reason.  When this happened, the path of light would widen out to where the person was.  Then a very subtle, gentle wind would start blowing them back toward the center of the path.  The wind was so gentle that it could be resisted, and not always recognized if you weren’t paying attention.  God was seeking to get their attention, but with a whisper.  And I sensed in His patience He would continue to nudge them as long is it took, without feeling anxious or upset with them.   When I was a young parent watching my children wander away from doing what I thought was best for them, I didn’t always respond with a “subtle, gentle wind”.  Often, out of fear or impatience, I would try to control the situation.  But our Jesus never responds out of fear or a need to control us.  And I could see, as He continued watching with those eyes filled with joy and affection, His smile never left His lips.  He wasn’t worried.  He had total confidence that the wind of His love would find His sheep, every time, with patience, with kindness, with truth.   His love is understanding, generous and constant.  His grace is sufficient, and He is gracious to extend help to us even when we don’t recognize the help for what it is, as He guides us along our journey in this world. I pray we all continue to grow in recognizing the grace that is extended to us every day.  As Graham Cooke would say, God is not looking for us to make a mistake, He is looking for opportunities to give us an upgrade! Love, Pastor Susan