I remember once as a young mother, I had been sick with a terrible flu. With barely enough energy to move, I looked over to the stack of dirty dishes teetering precariously in the sink. And, then over to the table on the left – a massive pile of laundry still waiting to be folded.

“Mommy, you sleep,” offered my little one. “I can do this.” He was just four-years-old at the time, but still with enough presence of heart to extend a helping hand.

I drifted off to the sound of rushing water and clinking plates. “I’m doing for you, Mommy,” sounded a little voice from the kitchen.

As I opened my eyes, I saw him standing there, proudly, on ‘tippy toes’ next to the kitchen sink. He had fashioned one of our dining room chairs into a make-shift stepping stool. And though, he was covered nearly waist-deep in soap bubbles…behind him, those dishes were cleaned.

“Lexy, quiet,” he hushed. His little sister was just beginning to stir from her nap. And, like the little trooper that he was, he was already rushing to give her a bottle.

It was a moment of divine grace.

“It is a whisper of feeling, almost intangible,” writes author, Mary Traina. “Yet it is powerful. Suddenly you are in a different space. You feel almost weightless. The air is still, your breathing is slow, but what you are experiencing is clean and clear. You have been touched by a moment of pure grace.”

I’ve always believed grace to be one of life’s greatest treasures. A sudden miracle, basked in the light of loving-kindness – reminding us, that there is so much more to this life than we might ever have imagined.

The Buddha saw grace in the ordinary kind heart of a child – who, upon seeing someone starving, offered, “Please, you must eat.”

Grace always seems to find us in this way; a flickering of hope in an otherwise weary world.

In the spiritual sense, it is a moment marked by the warmth of loving-kindness; a tenderness with the capacity to transcend even our darkest of spaces.

“You are so weak,” offers Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī. “Give up to grace. The ocean takes care of each wave till it gets to shore. You need more help than you know.”

Indeed, we do need more help than we may know. And yet, our hearts seem so closed to this idea of dependance. How easily we’ve forgotten that it’s these moments of grace, which help to beautify our world.

But, only when we allow ourselves to remain open to them. To slow down, to lean in…to listen.

And, realize – that we are a masterpiece of grace.