At the end of every month, we’ll come together to count the grace He has breathed into our lives through the lens of this month’s blessing. Join me tonight as I find a joy deeply rooted in a grace unexpected.

As April draws to a close, I find myself smiling a bit at life and all its irony. e Snuggled and sniffling in a wingback, positive for COVID, I hardly imagined this as the ground for joy’s deep rooting. But when I consider the ways He has met me even here, I cannot help but take heart in the One who loves me always.

In truth, our 2022 has been filled to the brim with every kind of sick bug imaginable. So much so, I am quite certain the CDC might consider studying us for the next strain of bioterror. With almost ridiculous weekly consistency, a child has brought something gross home for us to experience in a strange and somewhat unrelenting togetherness.

But our world fell down when my husband was hospitalized with COVID pneumonia in February. It was brutal in every way imaginable—from pleading with Jesus face-on-the-floor to the grace of bringing my love back home. The journey forced us to see our unrelenting togetherness in a different way. We set aside inconvenience and found gratitude in a perspective not-so-easily won.

It was a grace strong enough to meet me even here, knowing my immunocompromised self could easily end up in a hospital bed. But the hard edges of what came before has made it all softer somehow---the quarantine, the monitoring of my sat and heart rates, the what-ifs. With each day that passes, my hands further uncurl to the truth that even when our worlds fall apart, He is who He says He will be—bigger, stronger and achingly enough.

But it took going through the fire then to see His grace now.

Friends, how has this kind of unexpected grace met you today?

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

II Corinthians 12:9