“God’s mercy lurks in the shadows of your life.” This is from p. 44 in 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed. One of the most revealing words in the Bible is the word “mercy.”

We sometimes translate it “compassion.” Jesus showed mercy to those who were in need. Sometimes he saw the needs and crossed the room and healed; othertimes those who were in need had to get up and cross the room to get to Jesus; and sometimes their friends brought them to Jesus so he could “mercy” that person with grace.
If understood aright, these words of Kathleen Norris open a window on God’s mercy and grace toward us: “We praise God not to celebrate our own faith but to give thanks for the faith God has in us. To let ourselves look at God, and let God look back at us” (p. 151, from Amazing Grace).
God’s mercy comes to us at Pentecost to make us the kind of community which, apart from grace, it could never be.