Grace Finds You Before You Are Clean

The morning light is unforgiving; it shows every smudge on the mirror, every crack in the mask you wear to work. You feel that if people saw the real history of your hands, they would pull away.

But there is a moment in the story where a paralyzed man is lowered through a roof, broken and exposed, and the light looks at him and simply says, 'Your sins are forgiven.' It did not wait for him to be cleaned up. It did not require a speech.

The forgiveness came before the healing, before the standing, before the walking. You are trying to scrub yourself clean before you dare to approach the table.

The light does not need you to be spotless; it needs you to be present. The dirt on your soul is not a barrier to the touch of grace; it is the very reason the hand reaches out.

You are not too ruined to be held.