Grace...
Our younger daughter's middle name is Grace. Her first name means (alternately) Rational or Little Truth. Her nature is, in retrospective, a pleasant combination of the two. She is full of grace towards others. And she is full of thought and full of explanation.
My dad visited us and was surprised that she expressed to him a well thought out theology of God's grace. She is six and she was saved this past spring. I would like to say I was surprised for him, but she is continually thinking through things and expressing where her thoughts lead her.
And then the next moment she is a beautiful young girl having fun and the next moment we woke her up too soon and she struggles at the breakfast table.
The way of grace is very much like her. It is rational and elegant...unexpected and easy to accept and understand. And so hard for us grown ups to grasp.
But she grasped it and asked to make a public profession of faith and explained to the counselor the meaning of salvation in her own terms. She wanted to obey Jesus by being baptized.
Of all of my children, she is the one that really listens to correction. It can be heartbreaking for a parent when one of your children instantly "gets" the problem and applies what you are saying to their own actions. She is one of those.
Today at lunch I listened as two of my workmates made fun of God and of Christians. I was heartbroken as I understood that, too often, they were right. Christians push people away from the Good News in a thousand ways. They asked me what was wrong...I replied...that I was thinking.
Then it struck me that there are two kinds of grace that we are used to: one is theological grace, but the other is the grace of the swan on the lake and the grace of the ballerina.
I wonder if God inspired the concept of theological grace to be called that so that it would lead to the other kind of grace?? That by accepting God's Gift, we would become graceful in forgiveness and in speech and in action to others?
Grace is easy...and it is so hard...but it should never be cheap...it should be...
EXTRAVAGANT!!
My dad visited us and was surprised that she expressed to him a well thought out theology of God's grace. She is six and she was saved this past spring. I would like to say I was surprised for him, but she is continually thinking through things and expressing where her thoughts lead her.
And then the next moment she is a beautiful young girl having fun and the next moment we woke her up too soon and she struggles at the breakfast table.
The way of grace is very much like her. It is rational and elegant...unexpected and easy to accept and understand. And so hard for us grown ups to grasp.
But she grasped it and asked to make a public profession of faith and explained to the counselor the meaning of salvation in her own terms. She wanted to obey Jesus by being baptized.
Of all of my children, she is the one that really listens to correction. It can be heartbreaking for a parent when one of your children instantly "gets" the problem and applies what you are saying to their own actions. She is one of those.
Today at lunch I listened as two of my workmates made fun of God and of Christians. I was heartbroken as I understood that, too often, they were right. Christians push people away from the Good News in a thousand ways. They asked me what was wrong...I replied...that I was thinking.
Then it struck me that there are two kinds of grace that we are used to: one is theological grace, but the other is the grace of the swan on the lake and the grace of the ballerina.
I wonder if God inspired the concept of theological grace to be called that so that it would lead to the other kind of grace?? That by accepting God's Gift, we would become graceful in forgiveness and in speech and in action to others?
Grace is easy...and it is so hard...but it should never be cheap...it should be...
EXTRAVAGANT!!
posted by greg.w.h@4:42 PM link-to-post
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