Every child who has ever stumbled into a Sunday School class knows grace is unmerited favor. Everyone who ever went to a group in Baptist Training Union (BTU) knows Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Everyone who has belonged to a church for more than three months knows Grace is the undeserved, unmerited, unfathomable favor of God.
Hopefully everyone who has entered into a salvation covenant with God through his Son, Jesus Christ knows about grace; knows grace is the currency with which God claims us as his sons and daughters. Knows grace is the outpouring of God’s love in a magnanimous way that supersedes our mere understanding.
What we do not always know is what that grace looks like? What we do not know is the reason for the grace. What we don’t know is what grace looks like on those who have received it.
And we definitely don’t know how to extend it…not on a consistent basis that belies our personal likes and dislikes, our personal character dings, our private prejudices and the biases we hold in our hearts.
We are quick to exonerate folks we like and love.
We’re quick to extend a hand to those who fit into all our preferred categories.
We are quick to offer to look the other way when the offending party is someone we care for; someone we determine needs a new life, another chance, a whole new start.
But how does grace look when the person who needs it from us doesn’t fit into any of those categories? What does grace look like when the person who wants it belongs to a class we hold in low esteem? What does that grace look like when the person who needs it is the person who has done dastardly deeds towards us and or towards people we love?
What does that grace look like when it has strings attached? When it has stipulations? When it is so altered by our affections, or lack thereof that it loses the very nature of grace?
Food for thought.
Dorothy Scott Boulware 