Moments of grace, and how to spot them!

Several moments of grace recently. Not the holy, theological, prevenient, or sovereign kind. but definitely the saving kind. Here's two of them.

In Dobbies for a scone and a latte - a frequent sacrament of friendship with Sheila. On this occasion we had one scone broken between two so yes, a sacrament. At Dobbies you take your tray, choose your scone and butter and jam. Then you can bypass the cooked breakfast queue and head straiight for the coffee makers.

As I begin walking the 20 yards to the coffee place, alongside me two women, mother and daughter. She eyes me, I eye her, she walks faster, so do I. Moral and pastoral question. Do I sprint and beat her to it, or do I slow down and let her "win". Being the last word in repartee I said, On you go". She grinned and said,"Thanks. I'd have beat you anyway." Much laughter. She ordered, I ordered, and my coffee provider worked faster so I got to the till first. Who won? Who cares? We both did.

Having a bad day. We all have them, and I had just had one. All kinds of reasons and none of them really fixable in any quick way. You know the kind of day when you would feel more negative about things if only you had the energy. So as it is, and as you can only carry so much excess baggage, you give up  your aspirations to feeling negative+, and just settle for being, well, negative. And then a friend intervenes. Conversation, coffee, company, affirmation. And by the end of the day you are in that place in Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, just moving from the thunderstorm to the peasant's thanksgiving and dancing, and the gentle persistent intervention of that beautiful melodic movement I never hear without thinking of all the good things that make it possible for us to look again and be surprised at how good life is. And all that negativity is discharged like lightning and earthed harmlessly, and the sun shines again. Well, that was yesterday.

Grace is undeserved favour.

Grace is the gift we never asked for, looked for or worked for.

Grace is beautiful and makes beautiful.

Grace looks you in the eye and says you matter, no matter what.

Grace is two people with scones on trays inadvertently inventing a new sports event, the scone and tray race.

Grace is the presence of those people who are like sunshine pushing through clouds, and inviting us to dance. 

And yes, grace is what God is about, always and ever.

And we often encounter that grace in the faces, and at the hands, of others who love us with the friendship of God.

The Rublev Icon above is there because it is in my view one of the greatest Christian images of grace as loving welcome and attentive hospitality.

Comments

[lynn]

I love this post J.

Grace doesn't always cover over hurt or confusion, pain and anger but it turns the responder UP rather than IN and releases them to walk in mercy rather than judgment.