Turn Around: Find Grace

Turn around.

There is grace. 

Right behind you.







The voice behind you saying,

"This is the way. Walk in it. When you turn to the right and when you turn to the left."                                                                  -Isaiah 30:21

Your ears shall hear the voice.

The word.

The one He speaks for this moment.



But how can You be leading me from behind me?

No wonder I am free to walk off on my own.


Turn around.

Right where you are.

This is where the grace lies.

With Me.

My Holy Spirit enabling the flowing of grace.


Turn and face HOPE
when I have none.

Turn and face the OVERWHELMING ONE
when I am overwhelmed.

Turn and face GRACE
when I am empty,
I can't give out what I haven't got
I need to be filled up with You and Your grace.


Come boldly
to the throne
of GRACE
to find mercy and grace to help
in our time of need


Not harshness
in my time of need.

Not sternness
in my time of need.

Oh, am I in need.

May I be like the plant, who responds to the light. It stays right put, but it turns to the light. It grows towards the light. (the scientific name is phototropism).


The following is beautiful quote from A Good American by Alex George, a book I read for a book club the other month (can't fully recommend it though). Lately, my life has felt like a long opera.

My grandmother’s life had been one long opera. There had been drama, heroes, villains, improbably plot twists, all that. But most of all there had been love, great big waves of it, crashing ceaselessly against the rocks of life, bearing us all back to grace.

 



As I turn
and look into Your face

I find grace

for this place

 

The story behind the photos:

The elusive cherry blossoms that I waited for in April. A strange spring. It stayed cold late into the spring and then became quite hot. One day, they were not in full bloom. A few days later, they were and it didn't last long. So, I tramped down to the Tidal Basin to capture a few shots . . . my heart sank when I saw that I had missed the peak. But I found a few and just when I was ready to pack up, I scanned the horizon. My eyes caught a glimpse of a hidden pocket of trees in full bloom! Grace.

 

And the bonus. These tulips in the Floral Library.