Yesterday I got a call from my pharmacy, to remind me to refill one of my soon-to-be empty prescriptions. The voice on the other end of the phone was the pharmacist who called me more than a year ago when I picked up my first box of estrogen patches...

Back then, she called to check whether there had been some mistake with the prescription. Folks like me didn't tend to take estrogen, she said.

"No, it's right" I said.

And so I told her I was trans...

A bit later, when I popped into the drug store to pick up my patches, she was very friendly and said "If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know."

She always called me June, even when I was in guy mode...

The first time I was in the store after social transition, she was so surprised and delighted to see me. "Oh wow! I didn't even recognize you!" she said. "You look great!"...

So yesterday, when she called me, she said she would be leaving her job at the pharmacy, but that she was really glad to have met me. That she was going to keep watching my sermons online.

She wished me the best, and I started to get a little emotional...

"You were so kind to me at a time when I felt so awkward and afraid," I said. "I'll never forget that."

"I'll remember you, too," she said.

This journey is characterized by profound vulnerability. It exposes you to experiences of rejection & unkindness that can scar you forever.

But then sometimes it exposes you to breathtaking gestures of grace.