May 17th, 2012
For many years I spent time "drifting" through life. My purposes all seemed tied to raising my family, pursuing a career, and all the things that can encompass a busy life.
One sunny Saturday afternoon, my father and mother had come to visit us and sat and chatted for several hours. My father told the story of his famous spaghetti sauce recipe that came through my aunt T. He would give us the recipe, and yet none of us ever seemed to get it just right. He would tell us that some of the secrets to success with "the sauce" was to "wind" it and not stir it. I still think the secret to his success with our favourite meal was the patience it took to create such gastronomic perfection.
Patience is a virtue that I do not always possess, but thankfully, one my heavenly Father does.
My father passed away two weeks after this visit. It was not something any of us foresaw. The morning of his passing, my mother shared that he came down the stairs at the cottage, and with a beauty, peace and glow said to her "can you imagine what it will be like to see Jesus, face-to-face?" He was excited.
What we didn't know was that hours later, that is what he would be doing. Jesus, through my father, left us these words of comfort that have never left myself or my mother since his passing. This is an example of God's grace.
Before my father's passing, he left a video tape for me to watch. It was a sermon by Dr. Charles Stanley on grace. I took the video and buried it on my book shelf for many years. My father was insistent that I view it. I had tried many times to sit down and watch it, but always became distracted.
Several years later, I unearthed the video again and decided to sit down and watch the it. I was awe struck. For many years and through many people, there had been encouragement to read and understand exactly what God's grace is. For me, it is the essence of who God is. It is a truth so powerful, it needed to be the cornerstone of my life. Grace is amazing, unjustified, unearned, unwarranted, freely given to an undeserving soul. It is always greater than any number and type of sins we commit. For the first time in my life, I now understood the gift I had been given by my heavenly Father and the blessing God had given me in an earthly father.
Grace tells me I don't have to "work" at forgiveness anymore. I don't have to be perfect. I don't have to be nice, good, joyful, holy, pleasant, charitable and more to gain God's favour. I had it the day I accepted His gift of His son Jesus Christ.
God is all knowing. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He knows the beginning, and he knows the end. He knows what we will choose, even before we do. He knows our coming in (birth) and the moment of going out (death). And with this unparallelled knowledge of all events, He still chose to send His son to die on a cross for all of us. Knowing that this sacrifice, His only Son, would meet with disdain, suffering, hatred, rejection, and separation from Him at the moment He took on our sins.
If God was "fair" then He would not have sent His Son, and we would be punished for our sins. God is not fair, but He is just.
It can be hard to fathom the type of love that requires no gift, no monetary offering, no sacrifice, no adoration, perfection, power, beauty, or even familial ties. For most of us, we cannot love this way. It is only through Christ living in me, that I can begin firstly, to understand the magnitude of this type of love, and secondly, to share it with others. To see others through His eyes, with the love that He has for all of us.
The gift of salvation through grace is free.
Ephesians 2:9
not of works, lest anyone should boast.
We cannot earn it. If we could, it would no longer be a gift, but rather something we had achieved at a price we paid. We did not pay the price for this gift. Jesus did, on the cross. Is it truly a gift if YOU paid for it?
This grace that saved my soul, sustains me throughout my life. It is always there. When I look back on my life, I can see where God has repeatedly showered me with His grace. He has carried me, brought me joy through the pain, given me peace during moments of great anxiousness and concern.
After many years of walking in partial blindness ("I once was blind but now I see"), I truly understand the enormity of the grace that was given to me years ago on a cross on Calvary.
The gift my father left me, led me to the true meaning of The Father's greatest gift, given freely through His grace.
With the passing of my father, the ability to rely on him to "fix the wrongs", be an advocate on my behalf, offer support and love, left with his passing.
What was left in its place was God's grace. It was always there, but my reliance on my father often overshadowed my need to understand it.
I have found that God's grace is truly sufficient. When I thought it was my earthly father carrying me through these times, I soon realized it was my Heavenly Father, with His grace, sustaining me, leading me, walking beside me, carrying me, comforting me, loving me through these moments in life that have brought me great challenge.
And yes, God sustained me through my father's death. I rushed to my mother's side at the cottage to help bring her home, after my father passed that day. I had no doubt that this was my father's time to "go home".
What my mother and I were not prepared for was the way in which God brought us through that first very difficult night. We spent the night praising God. For my father's life and witness. For the peace He was giving us both during these early hours. And for the grace He was showing us in the midst of such grief and pain. We both look back on this as a moment we both received God's grace to sustain us during this loss.
It is one of the moments I often remember when I wonder if "I can endure the next step in my journey".
My answer is a resounding YES! With God, all things are possible. He goes before me. I am in NOT alone.
Matthew 19:26
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Charles Stanley on Grace (there are many more articles that explain this more fully, but I think this explains it well):
http://www.intouch.org/resources/article-archive/content/topic/a_picture_of_grace_article
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