Family of Grace

This year hasn't been easy. It's had its high points but it's also had a lot of low points. So just like any other year really. Some of the high points have been higher than usual, some of the low points longer and lower than usual. This year though. This year is different in a big way.

I was chatting with a friend this afternoon about this year and the annually challenging points and she said something that this year has demonstrated on a profoundly deep level for me.

She said that one of the ways God shows grace is by giving us people who will stubbornly love us when we can't love ourselves. People who won't give up on us when we give up on us. Who won't go away when we want them to. People who will hug us when we just want want to be left alone because they know we need the hug more than we need to be alone.

We have a lot of blessings here in Sydney. We have health and wealth and safety and so many good things.

But apart from the love of Christ the greatest blessing in my life is without a doubt the small group of people who love me when I don't

Who turn up on the nights when I don't want to eat to cook me dinner because they know I need to eat. Who turn up to work on hard workdays to remind me that work is survivable. Who know I can't accept generosity so don't offer it but transfer simply transfer money when I'm struggling so I can afford things I would otherwise struggle to pay for.

I have a lot of clothes. Probably too much. Most of it is op shop clothing because I love quirky stuff. Some of it it stupidly priced but fun. Some of it was gifted. But there is one piece of clothing I value above everything else I own. It's a size too big and it was second hand. There's slight fading around the bottom. But I wear it all the time. Because this piece of clothing was given to me by a friend when I was mourning someone I didn't know anywhere near as well as I probably could have but who was a massive blessing to me years ago. My friend knew I was hurting and gave me this beautiful, shiny piece of clothing to serve as a reminder that I'm not alone. That I'm loved.

These things. These tiny little things. Done by this beautiful little family God has given me. Are the most valuable, beautiful and encouraging things in my life.

Sometimes I can't love myself.

Sometimes I need people to stubbornly love me anyway.

Sometimes I need to be reminded that Jesus loves me anyway.

I want to love like this. I want to be a person that shows people what God's love looks like. I want to love Jesus and love like Jesus and be someone who shows people what that looks like. I'm not very good at that, I sometimes struggle to love almost as much as I struggle to be loved.

Maybe that's why this little family of grace is so special to me. Because they show me daily what it looks like to love Jesus. To love like Jesus and to love people even when it's hard.

These moments and these people aren't a blessing because of what they do in the moment, although those things bless me, they are blessings because they show me what God's love and grace look like and they help me to love Him more.