Welcoming Grace

Grace. 

Grace is a long-present experience that has shaped the contours of my life, quietly reclaiming losses beyond measure. If you are here, I suspect that is likely true of you as well.

Looking at grace with the desire to recognise it and live with it better, I see more and more that without fanfare or expectation, grace is what makes a redeemed life possible. Not just a bandaged life, but a completely redeemed and restored life. Grace is the mysterious and holy offer of letting go the old and dying and welcoming a good and glorious new.

It is a spring for the soul.

My soul. Your soul.

Grace gives me the possibility to live a whole life in the presence of beauty and, without any blame or judgment, the invitation to let go of a ruined life and enter into a new life as a new creature, a new being. Grace invites me to lay down what I cannot ever change or mend. It invites me to simply accept with open hands the gift of my life made whole. Every single element of my life is transformed by a grace given to me, a gift that I cannot earn and do not deserve. The only way to receive grace is by laying aside pride and in humility accept the gift as it is offered.

Grace is an exchange made in a single breath but practiced across the arc of a lifetime.

Scripture defines grace as “unmerited favour”, and unmerited it is indeed. Favour means approval. By the great mysteries of our Holy God, He gives us the gift of life and then gives us the gift that makes it possible to live new and to live true. It is Amazing Grace.

Please accept my heartfelt welcome as you enter this edition of Cultivating and an invitation to rest here and to linger. You are welcome in this Pilgrim’s Inn.

May the Lord meet you here and give you encouragement, joy, and delight in this season of spring. A season of grace and mercy and new days with new hope rooted in ancient promises. May we each grow in in confidence we are given to draw near to our Holy One and find our deepest needs met in His presence. And may our hearts be healed and made whole.

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence,

so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Hebrews 4.16

Welcome, friend, and enter grace!

The featured image titled, “Lancia’s Red Peony After Rain” is courtesy of Lancia E. Smith and used with her glad permission for Cultivating.

Lancia E. Smith

Lancia E. Smith is an author, photographer, business owner, and publisher. She is the founder and publisher of Cultivating Oaks Press, LLC, and the Executive Director of The Cultivating Project, the fellowship who create content for Cultivating Magazine. She has been honoured to serve in executive management, church leadership, school boards, and Art & Faith organizations over 35 years.

Now empty nesters, Lancia & her husband Peter make their home in the Black Forest of Colorado, keeping company with 200 Ponderosa Pine trees,  a herd of mule deer, an ever expanding library, and two beautiful black cats. Lancia loves land reclamation, website and print design, beautiful typography, road trips, being read aloud to by Peter, and cherishes the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and George MacDonald. She lives with daily wonder of the mercies of the Triune God and constant gratitude for the beloved company of Cultivators.

thecultivatingproject.com/