Grace is one of my daughters, we named her after the Princess and the virtue. She embodies both. She looks like grace the virtue might look if it took a form. Angelic; white, long, curly, blond hair. Innocent; the largest, bluest eyes. Forgiving; two soft arms ready to encircle you at a moments notice.
Today at Vacation Bible School Grace taught me something, grace smells good. It was a lesson, about God’s grace for us. Now please don’t stop reading if your not religious. I’m not going to preach about any set religion, and I won’t argue one religion over another. Grace is something that is available for all of us, and for all of us to share with one another. The lesson required the group leaders to wash the children’s hands with water laced with vanilla.
This display was to show them that the love God has for them is sweet, and pure, and unconditional. The way our love for one another should be. A golden rule. Grace was excited that it smelled so good, so sweet. She wanted to come home and bake, “It smelled like chocolate chip cookies.”, she said. And I realized that grace and forgiveness smells sweet too. Like fresh cut grass, raspberries warmed by the sun, cookies. It also feels good; like a one hour massage, a hug from your Grandma, a sticky kiss from your daughter.
Grace said it felt good too; as we discussed it; the water warm, her leaders touch was tender. For me it is all to easy to not grant grace. To be in a hurry, to feel like my agenda is more important then another, to feel wronged. It is all to easy to hang on to those feelings, to let them fester, to let them become huge and take over. To fill by stomach like rocks and load my shoulders down with the weight. I thought about my choices every day. My choice to let a car go ahead of me, after all, maybe their child is ill and they just need to get to a Doctor. My choice to not be unhappy if a line at the supermarket is long and slow, maybe it happens that way so I can chat with the old man, lonely after his wife passed. My choice to not feel snubbed by the grouchy librarian, who couldn’t be nice and say hi back to my four year old, maybe she can’t make ends meet and she just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
So starting today, I’m choosing grace. I will look at people and see all of them, and be compassionate and loving in my judgements. I will make a kind comment to a mother with a crying child, I will let two cars merge at the on ramp, I will take time to joyfully listen to beloved memories of a stranger. And most importantly I will be gracious to my family and friends, who often get the brunt of our stresses. Will you join me in choosing grace, too?
