This post will make more sense if you read some of the earlier extreme balance posts
We called our first daughter Hannah Grace (Hannah means grace in Hebrew), so she was Grace Grace Rubie (now Morrison). Suffice to say, I have always been in awe of Grace.
Grace is one of those words that describes something so profound and multifaceted it is hard to define. I have heard many definitions over the years, some good, some not so good.
I thought I would make up my own definition (why not) – It is not a comprehensive definition, but I think it captures one facet of Grace:
– Unexpected Beauty –
Most of us can remember Susan Boyle stepping onto the stage during her audition for Britain’s Got Talent. She was an embarrassingly awkward, ordinary looking lady. Everyone’s expectation was a cringe-worthy performance – we sensed her vulnerability and it made us anxious.
And then she opened her mouth “I dreamed a dream in days gone by….” And we were all touched by grace – something unexpectedly beautiful.
On ANZAC day when Ataturk’s letter to the mothers of soldiers who died on the battlefields of Gallipoli, is read “… You the mothers who sent your sons from far away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.” This expression of love, by a former enemy, is unexpectedly beautiful and touches us with grace.
I have included grace as one of the posts about extreme balance because it is often grace that we see when opposing truths are lived in the extreme.
When the King of Kings kneels and serves, it is unexpectedly beautiful – grace
When Justice is met with mercy, we see grace
When faith met works and Jesus wept, we saw grace
When life leaps forth from death we see grace
When we look at the faces of Daniel Morcombe’s parents who have dedicated their lives to saving children having tragically lost their own son to a predator – we do not see bitterness, we see grace.
The human heart is in tune with grace.
We are exalted by it.
Grace has a memory that lasts long after the event.
The most unexpectedly beautiful object in the world is the Cross.
The most horrific means of torture and death devised by man has caused more hearts to exalt and sing than any other object.
It is where truth and justice met mercy and forgiveness
It is where God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…
It is ‘Amazing Grace’ where those once lost are now found and those blind now see
The hymn When I Survey the Wonderous Cross proclaims ‘… did ere such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown’
this act of grace changed the world
and changed my world
I hope you have surrendered to its unexpected beauty
Why not show grace today and do something unexpectedly beautiful!