Jeremiah 31:2

The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.

Lord, Hagar found You

in the wilderness.

She found You

when she was lost.

She found You

when she was broken.

She found You in the midst

of being overwhelmed by

fear and by loneliness. 

She found You, Lord, when

she thought she was forgotten,

a ghost already, drifting, invisible,

her son already orphaned.

She found You and she named You.

You are the God who sees me.

Lord, I too have wandered

the wilderness.

I too have been afraid.

I too have felt forgotten.

But, I too have found You,

and I know that You see me.

I know that I am seen.

You are Grace, Lord.

You have always been

Love,

and You have always been

Hope,

but now I see, You, Lord,

and I know that You are Grace.

It is Grace that follows me

into the wilderness when

I have lost hope and feel unloved.

It is Grace that sits with me

through all the hours

of my darkest nights

and takes my hand

and strokes my thumb

and does nothing,

and does everything,

just by being there.

Grace is unafraid,

is unashamed of me,

of the wilderness inside of me.

Grace follows me into

the wilderness, into that barren,

dry furnace of a landscape,

and digs her fingers into

the sand and fills those troughs

with living water,

digs her fingers into the sand

and fills those holes with

new seeds and life.

Grace washes me clean

with the waterfalls of redemption

and reveals, finally, my true self,

so that I might be seen,

so that I might see, finally—

Me.

Amen.