Grace! I Want Grace!

“From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.”  John 1:16

 

Last Saturday my family babysat two little girls.  Our charges--one and a half and two and a half years old, respectively, arrived with diapers, jammies, and a music DVD.  It is no exaggeration to say that from the minute they walked in until thirty seconds before they walked out, the disc played non-stop. The second tune was the praise song, “This Is Amazing Grace,” and the key word in the title became the anthem of the youngest.  

“Grace!  I want grace!” she sweetly, strongly, and excitedly proclaimed.  The moment the last song would end, her mantra would begin.  “Grace!  I want grace!”  Since she’s still learning to talk, the words “I want” often came out garbled, but her demand for “grace” was always clear.  When (the first three times around) I failed to immediately push the repeat button on the DVD remote, she dissolved into tears as she stared at the blank screen sorrowfully proclaiming, “Grace.  I want grace.”  And when the familiar sights and sounds began again, cheers replaced her tears as she joyfully announced, “Grace!! Grace!!”

About the fifth time through, during that two second interlude of silence between songs, I clicked over to check on the USA Figure Skating Championships. I thought that since movement and music would still be showing, we might get away with it, but the child was not fooled.  Immediately she recognized the imposter and began her imploring wail--“Grace!  I want grace!  Grace!  I want grace!”

The skating costumes were flashier than the outfits worn by the kids on the DVD, the motions more graceful, and the music more dramatic, but since the clever toddler knew what authentic “grace” looked and sounded like, no cheap imitation—no matter how extravagant or appealing—would do.  

We can all learn a lesson from the little one.  From the time we were babes in our faith, we’ve been repeatedly saturated in grace.  As the slave-trader turned song-writer John Newton penned, “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.  How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.” Actually, that amazing grace appeared way before our belief.  It showed up when Christ came down to give His life for ours, and it was working in our hearts even before we were His.  God’s grace not only saves us, but over and over and over, day after day after day, God’s grace sustains us, strengthens us, and straightens us up.  His grace fills us with joy, peace, contentment, and purpose, and His grace binds us to Him now and forever. “Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”

Sometimes we fail to recognize the beauty of such blessing.  At other moments the enemy catches us in a lull and diverts our attention to something that appears more flashy and dramatic, but we should not be fooled.  Style is not substance, and our desperate hearts need the real deal—no cheap imitation will do.  May we quickly recognize any imposter and begin the imploring wail of “Grace!  I want grace!”  

There is no stronger or sweeter word for it flows from the holy heart of a perfect Father whose willingness to endure the worst allowed Him to give us His best—His grace.  From now to forever, through the tears, the cheers, the victories, the failures, the marvelous, or the mundane, our mantra should stay the same. “Grace!  I want grace!”

Nothing else will ever do.