I Saw Jesus Today

I saw God today in the face of a healthy baby. Her tawny brown skin was smooth and creamy, her little chubby legs kicked with vigor.

Her mama has been addicted to drugs. She's made bad mistakes; bad enough to have other children taken away, bad enough to lose just about everything..bad enough.

I held that baby and looked into the eyes of her mama; clear and blue and full of deep regret who gave the gift of health to her little one.

I heard the Holy Spirit today. I heard Him speak through our eldest daughter, Lorna, who lives and serves this mama at a Christian maternity home.

I heard Him in my daughter's truthful replies to the questions asked of her by this searching, hurting woman; words from the Bible of forgiveness and grace.

I heard Him speak as Lorna crooned words to the miracle baby, "Do you know God loves you? Do you know that?"

Strong words, words of truth and love.

I saw Jesus today in my friend who has walked through deep waters in her marriage but refuses to use pain as an excuse to sin.

By God's grace she strives to honor her husband with her lips and her life. By His strength she continues to stand in faith for her marriage. I saw Jesus in her.

Our days are filled with the mundane; the chicken to be fried, the car to be vacuumed, the phone call to be answered. The seen overwhelms the unseen and, then, God opens our eyes to the miraculous.

It is a supernatural work of God for a drug addicted mother to turn from her drugs in order to save the life of her child...when an empty woman realizes she needs to be filled.

It is the grace of God who moves a young woman to  love women who have shipwrecked their lives; to speak hope and truth to them.

It is a move of the Spirit to put words of love and forgiveness into the mouth of the forsaken wife.

God is a miracle-working God.

He still reaches out to the woman at the well.

He still embraces the abandoned.

His grace is  still perfected in our very weakness.

Oh, how He loves you and me!

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18

Jill Farris has been married to her husband Doug for thirty years and is the proud mother of eight children ages six to twenty-six. She is passionate about encouraging those women who hold the next generation on their laps. You will find her encouraging those women with practical tips and encouraging articles at her blog Generational Womanhood.