The Grace of God

We have no need of patience with ourselves and with others.
With those below and those above us, and with our own equals.
With those who love us and those who love us not, for they are.

The greatest of things, and for the least of things we leave them
To God who knows our needs even before we even know them,
He who shares our hurts and our sense of failure with ourselves.

He watches against sudden inroads of trouble, and daily burdens.
For disappointments as to the weather, or the breaking of the heart.
In the weariness of the body, or the wearing of our souls; He knows.

In our own failure of duty, or others’ failure toward us; in everyday
Wants, or in the aching of sickness or the decay of age, He knows.
In disappointments, bereavements, losses, injuries, and reproaches;
In heaviness of the heart, or sickness amid delayed hopes. He knows.

In all things, from childhood’s little troubles to our bodies sufferings.
Patience is the grace of God, whereby we endure Satan’s evil even daily.
For it is in the daily unchanging love of God that we see His grace to us.