I heard the phrase, Just call her Grace, said with a healthy dose of resigned tolerance, regularly through my childhood. Just call her Grace! referring to my young, awkward, and clumsy personage. Grace, to me then, implied moving with ease and decorum. Gently, gracefully, nicely. Not bumping into things or stepping off curbs or tearing my clothes on whatever I brushed against. Not tripping over loosened shoelaces. Certainly not breaking your arm at the roller skating rink. I did not have this sort of grace and felt regularly embarrassed and called out for my lack of grace.
Today, as an older but still regularly awkward and clumsy person, I’ve gained some perspective on this sort of grace … it’s how you handle the occasional misstep. With embarrassment or with … grace? Quietly, not drawing attention to yourself, and respectfully, not causing a commotion as you recover your tangled dignity and go on. I’ve found this to be a worthwhile approach for me.
Another remembered phrase of my younger years is There, but for the grace of God, go I. It was a borrowed phrase with no acknowledged belief in (or even real awareness of) God or His grace. This kind of grace was never explained or explored, but I did come to realize that it wasn’t a behavior-related grace like the aforementioned foil to my physical awkwardness. And it served me well in gaining an approach of thankfulness and appreciation for opportunities and kindnesses I had not earned or deserved, though (not yet) recognizing grace to be summed up in Jesus’ act of salvation for every transgressor.
Then I began to attend church and Bible study and hear others talk about God being an active part of their lives. The music and the Scriptures referenced grace entirely differently than I had heard before. I grew to understand the beautiful meaning of the word grace is unmerited favor, God’s unmerited favor. The apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, here from Chapter 2, is such a lesson of grace.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2.1-10
God’s gentle care, His unconditional love, His Son’s life for mine, my life saved by Jesus’ grace … I want to be nowhere but living by His grace.
Trusting the Lord with you, Colleen