It’s all grace

 

... the only thing that counts is faith working through love (Galatians 5:6b)

He was only 15 months old, and I never caught his name, but he’s already my teacher, offering a lesson I tend to forget.

His mother carried him through the door of the coffee shop, stood him on the floor and fiddled with her purse. He looked over and fixed his gaze on me, and there we were, eye-to-eye, his grin bright as the morning. I couldn’t look away even if I wanted to; some things are just too wonderful.

You can’t pay for this. You can’t make it happen. It’s a given moment, a little grace on a day, like all days, when we very much need it. You either receive it or let it pass as if it were nothing of value.

It’s that way with children’s smiles and all God’s gifts. You cannot pay for that which is freely given. And to think you did something to deserve it dishonors the giver.

We are given life without asking to be born. We are given every new day without a prayer being offered. We receive the mystery of the person we are, shaped by genetics, time and history, as a gift we continue to unwrap until the end of our days.

It’s all gift, grace, from a giver. No, a Giver.

Greatest of all is the gift of standing before God justified, welcome, wanted and treasured so greatly that all the love Christ is ... is given to us. Our actions, however good or evil, cannot start or stop God’s self-giving love and welcome.

The only way to put yourself in proper relationship with such love is to soak it in and say, ‘Thank you,” knowing you bask in a smile considerably warmer than that of little boys in coffee shops.

Then, pass it along ... and expect to be surprised.

Pr. David L. Miller