Grace

Have you ever had an opportunity to show grace to someone else? I'm sure you have, but quite possibly, you didn't even recognize that what you were doing was, in fact, showing grace. Have you ever shown grace to someone on purpose? What did that look and feel like from your vantage point?

Before I go any further, I think it's important to define this word "grace". In a nutshell, grace is unmerited favor (getting what you don't deserve). Recently, I had an opportunity to show a close friend of mine grace. I don't think it's necessarily important to divulge exactly what I did to show grace (because I don't deserve any glory for it) to this friend of mine but what I do think is important is the lesson I learned from it.

I did something for this friend and she couldn't quite figure out why I did what I did. She stared blankly at me and just kept asking, "Why? Why did you do this? How can I repay you for this?" Of course, I responded, "I did it because I can and because I wanted to. And there's no need to repay me. It's a gift of grace." She was elated. In fact, I don't think the word "elated" quite covers it. She was dancing around and singing. She couldn't wait to tell people about it. To be honest, I was about to bust because my friend was so excited.

Then, as I was driving home and over the course of the next 24 hours, I had an epiphany. We were shown the ultimate grace when God sent his only begotten son to die for us. God loved ME so much that he sent his perfect Son to die in my place, for my sins, for my transgressions. But am I dancing around and singing and about the bust with excitement or am I sitting back on my haunches? Too busy and complacent? Am I running around and telling anyone who will listen about the ultimate gift that was given to me? That's a scary thing to recognize, no?

Showing grace to my friend was easy. But what about an enemy? Let's dig deeper, shall we? This was presented to me and I've been chewing on it. I'm still chewing because honestly, it's a tough piece of meat. Imagine that someone killed your child, was convicted and sentenced to death? Imagine that you're at the sentencing hearing and you hear, "For the conviction of murder, you will be put to death." Now, imagine that you not just offer, but demand to take the place of the murderer and die for him. In essence, that's exactly what Christ did for us. He chose to die for our sins.

Showing grace to a friend is easy. But I was stretched when presented with that scenario above. As easy as it is to show grace to a friend, it's even harder to show grace to someone who we view as completely undeserving. But in the end, aren't we all undeserving? Isn't that what makes grace so beautiful?

Just something to ponder.