I took a deep breath and pressed my forehead against the cool surface of the window as raindrops began to fall.

I was hoping to get a glimpse of her before I went inside. A glimpse of a woman whom I had never met, but whom I should have known all my life because . . . she was my grandmother. She had disappeared from my father’s life when he was only a baby, and he had disappeared from mine when I was only a little girl.

Over twenty years later, the Lord would have it that we would find each other. My father would be a man restored, healed from years of debilitating anger and violent behavior that had nearly destroyed him.

As it says in today’s Psalm, he had found refuge in the Lord.

My grandmother was dying, her body ravaged from years of drug use and living on the streets. My father had taken her into his home, his mother, a stranger, and gave her the gift of taking her last breath in the presence of her son. She was loved and forgiven.

I entered her room, and her gaze slowly met mine. Her eyes that I’m sure were once a rich brown had faded to a pale blue. Her hands were withered and scarred, telling the painful story of her life as an addict.

However, as she lifted one withered hand to touch mine, I noticed a small Bible in the other clutched against her thin chest. She smiled weakly but with such joy, and I thought of Jesus saying in today's Gospel, “Stretch out your hand” (Luke 6:10).

She was not destroyed. She was saved by a Father Who loved her and had forgiven her.

You are also loved by Jesus, and whatever you think is withered and destroyed is not. Restoration is for you. Stretch out your hand and place it in His.

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