This is Grace…

One of my dearest friends has a daughter named Grace.  She is an effervescent character.  My words will hardly do justice.

Bear with me.

She reads when others eat.. drink, alternatively, breathe.  I once caught her reading an oatmeal canister. She then commented on the dullness by which the instant oats were penned.

 

Another time she read a pamphlet she found in my car.  Later she applauded the persuasiveness of literary devices the author had executed. Intensifying, “I never even considered the importance of self-breast exams, even for someone as young as myself.”

I think she was 10.

 

She is altogether genuine. She is kind, to the point of heartbreaking. In my life, I have never met a child past the age of four, that sees such goodness in everyone.  In an event where several of her peers were criticizing a girl who had wronged them, she giggled and said, “Who in the world are you even talking about? She is the sweetest person I have ever met?”

The other girls stared in disbelief.  My daughter spoke, “Grace? She invited everyone to the party but you? And, she stole your lunch?”

Grace said, “Oh, I am sure she didn’t mean it.” Flippantly waving her hands in the air.

She is brilliant.  She is creative.  She is dear.

 

She can organize a debate on the everlasting hope of Jesus Christ with passion, dignity, and appropriate rage. She is convicted. She is wise.

 

On the flip side, she is the reason the phrase “A Gracism” was coined. Upon leaving a movie theater, after a three-hour premiere, her dad said, “I really liked that movie.” And Grace piped, “What movie?” Snarking, her dad said, “Star Wars Grace.” And Grace said, “Oh, cause I really liked the movie we just saw.”

 

Another time she got on the freeway on her way home from work – 75 miles later she exited and called her mom and dad to tell them she suspected she missed her turn.

 

 

There are 100 examples I could give that would make you laugh…alas, I assume she will write a beautiful and entertaining memoir one day, and they are not mine to tell.

 

 

Yesterday, in Sunday school the question was posed  “What is grace.”

 

 

We were left to ponder and discuss, and then, this afternoon I was afforded some time alone.

It occurs to me; my friend’s daughter is a lovely metaphor for grace.

 

 

Grace is not adequately defined until you have both given and received it.  It is a malady and symphony of so many things that words do not adequately describe.

Bear with me.

Grace is a lovely contradiction of brilliance and folly.

Sometimes, grace is forgiveness. The way a parent forgives a child – or a God forgives humanity.  Other times grace is an apology, even when it was not deserved.

Sometimes, it is discipline, more than you were warranted or much less than you can fathom.

 

Sometimes, it is poetic, descriptive and fascinating.

 

Other times, it appears to have completely missed the gravity of the situation.

One time grace is innocent and blind.

The next time it is passionate and expressive – definite is its beliefs.

 

Moreover, grace seems to go on and on, boundlessly blazing, missing opportunities to veer off; departing far beyond the reasonable.

If I were to have only met grace once, I might think it one way or another.  I may have believed it merely forgiveness or a blanket statement for escaping punishment.

However, tonight, I met with it again.

It was something else.

 

I sat alone, merely as a spectator, at a meeting for the broken, the weary, the addicted. From the outside, it is easy to judge. From the inside, I know I am no different. I am in need of grace in all of its complexities. I am desperate for every definition and every exploration by which it is exposed.

 

To define grace in essay or in word is to assume you can fathom how cavernous and profound it expands.

 

And I sat down to pen an explanation of grace, there are 100 examples I could give that would make you think. Alas, I joyfully assume grace will write a beautiful memoir one day of what it is in your life, and those stories are not mine to tell.

 

 

“For from HIS fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” John 1:16

May your floors be sticky and your calling ordained. Love Jami

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