Such Grace…He Sees Me …Hello weekend readers. I have a question for us that I have been musing on for a few weeks so here goes: Are you walking in grace? A friend of mine, Patricia Lorenz who is a wonderful writer and shares the love of God to everyone. She is still working with the Chicken Soup books and so much more. She told me “I’m getting old” and I said “Oh no, I am getting older first!” Our joy of each other is a lot about the power of grace! Here is her story…

One Easter Sunday morning I picked up my friend Suzanne, and the two of us headed for Mass under the big-top tent that my parish, St. Jerome’s, puts up anytime they expect an overflow crowd. The Easter morning was shining. I looked around and my heart just wanted to dance on this incredible day. And guess what, that dance happened…see below!

The tent was filled with hundreds of people sitting on white plastic chairs. Suzanne and I sat toward the back where I noticed a wiggly baby three rows ahead of me. I love babies and this bouncy six-month-old jumped up and down on his mother’s lap and then she put him on the ground and he danced with such joy that the people around us had smiles and joy.

Everyone around us felt that joy just as I did. We all kept staring at him and grinning and then suddenly the baby locked eyes with me! I grinned—he grinned and then stared right into my eyes. Suddenly I felt as if that is exactly how Jesus sees me. Directly. Right into my heart, soul, mind and that just flooded my heart with GRACE…here I am bouncing about with a baby who is already walking (and dancing) in God’s grace. Oh, what a day and I will never forget it.

Think about this: that squirmy, funny baby never met a stranger. Jesus never met a stranger either. That was the moment I was certain that Jesus sees me as that baby did. My mind swirled with joy—HE SEES ME—HE REALLY SEES ME! The only difference is that Jesus sees me, knows me, forgives me, puts up with my bad choices, and loves me unconditionally in spite of myself!

In Luke 11:34, using The Passion Translation, the Apostle said: “The eyes of your spirit allow revelation-light to enter into your being. When your heart is open the light floods in. But when your heart is hard and closed, the light cannot penetrate and darkness takes its place.”

So, “Are we walking in grace? Are we dancing with joy with Jesus? Are we reminded that Jesus sees us always no matter the bad choices and dumb things we do.”

My friend Patricia tells us to do this every day: shout it so all can hear: HE SEES ME and HE SEES YOU–24/7! There is no one who can do this but Jesus so we thank you for looking into our eyes, heart, soul and mind with such love. The inspiration you give to us helps us to share that with others who need you and understand that HE SEES THEM TOO!

This is a tough and nasty world we live in. We easily walk over people as if they are not there, but they are there and they need that walk of grace Jesus delivers. Let us be one of those deliveries of grace to someone today so they can find God’s grace…maybe they might even want to dance with a baby? HE SEES US – ALL OF US…Ah, Hallelujah AMEN.