When grace trickles in

“Hope has a way of turning it's face to you just when you least expect it.”
Sara Groves

                I stumbled across the song that contains those lyrics a little over a week ago. The truth of them has been doing its best to make itself known ever since. The last week or so has been chock-full of challenges in the clinic. Burned babies, and malnourished babies and adults with too stubborn hypertension have filled our benches. The ache that always comes with learning more about the day to day challenges my friends face has been particularly sharp. The temptation to wallow in the hurt, to be overwhelmed by the pain and the need has been intense.

Then, in song lyrics, grace seeps in. A sermon reminds me of the call on God’s people to be a people of wild hope and grace trickles in. At the sight of a toddler I have wondered about since August, healthy and even a little bit chubby, grace slips in. In the miracles of burn cream and a house rebuilt in just over a week, grace rushes in.  In the incredible joy of unwrapping the bandages of a young man who has been fighting leg ulcers for years and finding the wounds filled in, grace streams in.

                My heart is still raw and bruised, but I find joy stealing back in. I find new reasons to rejoice and reasons for gratitude. I find hope turning it's face to me just when I least expect it.