Journeying to Grace

This week when I heard a three-year-old suddenly but happily announce “I’ve been looking for Jesus all over the place!”, I was sure there was a spiritual lesson of hope to contemplate. Resting unseen below multiple colorful markers in a pencil box, was a one-inch plastic toy figure of Jesus – His hand held up in a greeting of welcome and wearing a purple sash across His white robe with the words ‘Jesus loves you.’ This child lifted the tiny Jesus for all of us to see, and with a voice of pure joy at his unexpected discovery, explained, “Look, Jesus was hiding, but I found Him.” And to ensure we were paying attention, he added, “I didn’t know Jesus was here.”

A simple moment but one packed with elation and excitement. Do we receive our unexpected encounters with Jesus with this kind of awe? Or in our distractions and busyness, do we miss these gifts of renewing grace and let Jesus go unseen? We know that Jesus is not actually hidden from us, but He may at times seem or feel distant from our hearts and spirit. Not because He is not fully present with His hand held up in welcome (which He always is), but because we allow the distractions of weakness and doubt to interfere and distort our awareness of the Lord – who is very near.

‘And surely I am with you always….’ (Matt 28:20)

Though these moments are not ‘of God,’ they happen to all of us. In those times, the worry, fear, or anger in us strengthen while the hope, joy, and trust in God weaken. Maybe we desire an answer and grow in frustration at our lack of clarity. Maybe we feel overwhelmed by the suffering of a loved one and grow more sorrowful at our helplessness. Maybe we struggle with the need to either seek or offer forgiveness and don’t know how to find the courage to take the first step. Jesus, who is not hidden but waiting for us to reach for Him in our emptiness, desires to again (and again and again) fill our troubled hearts with His healing love of hope and mercy. The sash on the toy proclaims all we need to understand: Jesus loves you. With the grace of awareness in our hearts, let us prayerfully ‘look for Jesus all over the place’ and welcome His encounters in unexpected places, so with great joy and awe, we lift Him and share Him with those around us.