Grace

              At one point in a marriage, sometimes...a little stranger will come into the couple’s lives. This stranger will not be paying the couple to stay with them; the stranger will actually be quite financially expensive. 

             The stranger cannot even talk at first. It will keep you guessing why it’s crying and screaming. The stranger will keep the couple from sleeping day and night, and must be watched 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. By the age of two, the stranger will start disagreeing with the couple. It will say, “No” and “Mine”, selfishly claiming the world as its own and throwing tantrums at every corner. 

             Then, the stranger will go through puberty. It will develop blemishes, its voice will crack awkwardly, and its hormones will drive it to do crazy things. Once the stranger has grown up, become beautiful, matured, and able to contribute, the stranger will go away. Why do couples do this?

              The reason given most often is they don’t even know why. They look at that little body, with those tiny hands and feet, and they think the stranger is beautiful-even though he looks like every other little baby. 

             Then, one day, the little stranger will smile just at them and they will think they just won the lottery. Those tiny arms and tiny hands will open up for the first time and wrap themselves around their neck. And it will feel like for the very first time they understand why arms and hands were invented. 

             This is grace. I used to think that grace only referred to the forgiveness of sins, but it is so much more than that. Grace is the constant self-giving love.

             In order to attain growth in ourselves,  the local community, and the global community, there must be grace. That does not mean we give whatever we want to ourselves, the local community, or the global community. 

             There need to be boundaries. Boundaries give ownership, control, freedom, responsibility, limits, and protection. We will be discussing boundaries in our next post. But for now, if we want to start changing the world, we must first do it with grace. It will allow us to remember we are making a difference, not because we want fame or fortune, but because we have grace and we want to share that grace with the rest of the world.