I heard a message on God’s grace today.  It was good, as are all messages on grace.  It is such a deep, simple concept…one of the awesome dichotomies that is God.  No matter how much you learn about it, there is always more and yet, it is the same as the first time you heard it.  Only God is able to be so rich in understanding. 

You see, when I learned about grace, I was a child.  It is, after all that simple.  Then as God began to get a hold of my heart in my relationship with him, he began to unravel this great mystery.  I think that every person has one or two truths about God that he teaches him or her in depth.  You might call it a life lesson.  Some people have a deep understanding of the kindness of God.  For others it might be the wisdom, or his righteousness.  Of course, he is always teaching us, through every event and circumstance in life. 

Grace is one of my life lessons. I learned it through wounding people with the superior attitudes of youth.  I could write a book about my many lessons in the amazing grace of God for his children.  You see, grace only begins at salvation.  That is the first lesson of grace, but once you are “in him”, the lessons continue because his goal is for you to be like Christ.  The idea that Christ died for my judgmental heart is indeed an amazing thing.  I can easily see his grace for a sinner that does not know any better than to sin.  I can accept that for my own heart, but for him to continually extend grace for my ongoing attitudes, when I know his heart on a matter but choose to ignore it…well that is unbelievable to me.  I think for many of us it is hard to grasp this fact and that is why it is so easy to work to perform for him.  It saves us the pain of allowing him to pour out his blood for our ugliness.  In that place, all we can do is stand in his presence.  It is uncomfortable to know that he knows our secret motives.  It is embarrassing to know that he sees deeply into our hearts and still loves us.  It is humiliating to have his gaze upon the blackness of your heart only to have him wipe that same blackness away in the blink of an eye.  In my mind, I never deserve such treatment and yet that is the power of his Grace.

Today’s scripture reference was Ephesians 2: 4-10.  The points were all P’s, progression, position, presentation, primacy, and proof. All of these P’s, of course, are true and align well with the scripture at hand.  There was one P however, that I wanted to add…Power, because without the power we would all be forever lost.

  It is the power of grace that allows a son to return to his fathers waiting open arms.  Grace is the reason that husbands and wives commit to stay together when times are tough. It is the power of grace that allows a father to ask his children’s forgiveness for wrongs committed. Grace is the force that allows families to be reconciled after divisions.  It is the power of grace that allows an alcoholic to experience freedom.  Mothers experience grace’s power while waiting for wayward children to return home. Grace is the power behind overcoming tragedy.  It is the power of grace that allows you to look cancer in the face and overcome.  For me, life is about the power of grace.  They are synonymous.  Every day there is a lesson of grace to learn…and it is amazing.