The Gift of Grace

Grace & Peace to you this day,

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”
(Ephesians 2:8-9)

I’ve been musing about grace lately. Grace is foundational to our relationship with God. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, understood grace as God’s active presence in our lives. It is a gift – a gift that is always available. God does not force us to receive it – we can refuse it. Nevertheless, God persists! God constantly seeks a relationship with us. The God of love continuously showers grace upon us. We need only to respond.

One of the emails I receive daily is from American writer and theologian, Frederick Buechner. I leave his words with you to refresh your connection with God through the pervasive and constantly flowing gift of grace:

After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody’s much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.

Grace is something you can never get but only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.

A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody?

A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do. There’s nothing you have to do.

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you. I created the universe. I love you.

There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it.

Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.

-        Frederick Buechner

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 -        Deacon Deb Clifford