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 the grace of loving others as He loves me.

I often wonder how many people I miss.

In my rushing. In my tasking. In my reconciling of this hurried life.

But Tuesday, I saw her.

Sitting alone beside my husband and I, watching us be utterly ridiculous in our failed attempts at selfie-taking, looking all of 12 even though I knew my mama glasses were shaving off a good 10 years.

I remember trying to decide if I should say something, hearing my teenager audibly in my head, “Mom, don’t be creepy.”

So I started with small talk, trying to keep my creep factor to a minimum, but somewhere in the small something big happened.

She told us about her life. She told us about her faith. She even told us about her adventure to this Tuesday-night concert, where she now found herself sitting beside some ridiculous old people who could not take a selfie to save their souls.

But somehow even that didn’t seem to matter.

As the evening drew to a close and we were saying our goodbyes, I felt something in me wanting to say, “I have no doubt you make God smile every day just by being you.”

And so I did.

Suddenly, I realized she was crying and hugging me tightly as she whispered through her tears. “You don’t know how much that means. I’ve done so many things wrong and three months ago, I knew I needed to make it right with Him.”

And somehow through my own tears I said words my own heart often failed to hear, “You didn’t have to, love. Jesus already did that for you.”

There in that moment I learned even more about love and the heart of a good Father.

Love doesn’t require us to be all cleaned up before we get to be worthy of it. Love doesn’t say “We need to fix you before we can sit with you.” Love doesn’t set out a laundry list of wrongs which we must somehow overcome.

Love shows up. Love reaches out. Love lays comfort down.

Because He loved first and showed us how.

Friends, how has the gift of loving others breathed grace into your days?

“He so loved the world He gave His son.”

John 3:16