I See Grace

This time of social distancing is a strange kind of alone.  I keep thinking of songs and hymns such as; “Holy Spirit you are welcome in this place”, and “what a thrill that I feel when I get together with God’s wonderful people”, and “I see grace, here in these walls, here in these rows… in every life, on every face.”    I miss God’s people.  His redeemed, healed, lovely people.

Here in these walls, here in these rows

There are those who regret the roads they once chose

More than the sorrow, more than the pain

There is joy for the way that

Through Christ they’ve been changed.

I See Grace by Jim Brady, Barry Weeks, and Tony Wood

For a long time, I lived with anguish, pain, and sorrow because I didn’t understand the grace I’d received.  I kept trying to earn grace, which is impossible because the very definition of grace is unmerited favor.  I can’t merit the unmerited because then it is no longer grace.  Oh what freedom and joy I discovered when I learned this truth – that I was saved by grace, and I lived by grace as well.  I could stop climbing the ladder of Merit that I kept falling off from time and again.  I could let go of my view of Christ as being at the top of that ladder, so completely out of reach, and accept the Truth that He dwelt within me and was as close as the mention of His name.  All the time.

There are lives freed from bondage of sins once concealed

There are bodies and minds, spirits now healed

Those who found freedom and shook off the chains

From long years of guilt, anger, and shame.

What joy it is to know that it is a road I’m walking with Christ and not a ladder I have to climb to get to Him.  When I stumble and fall, He picks me up and we keep walking.  He’s already paid the price for all my sins.  As Romans 5:8-10 says, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” 

Story after story, one common theme

God’s power and glory in those He’s redeemed

Such tender mercy time after time

So many ways in this story that’s mine.

When I came to see what grace meant for me, my eyes also opened to all the grace in the lives around me.  We all have our grace stories.  We all take a daily grace walk with our Redeemer.  Because God opened my eyes to see grace, church became, not a building, but a people – a family.  My people.  My family.  My fellow redeemed ones. I came to know what it meant to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice.  Sundays, when I enter church, the presence of the Lord is so full, even before a song is sung or word is preached, because He dwells in His people.  It’s like almost heaven for a while, and I miss it.  But soon, we will all be together again, and it will be almost like the great reunion we’re waiting for.  I can’t wait for the joy of that day.  I’ll look out from the choir loft and I’ll be able to say, “I see grace; Grace; I see grace in every life, on every face, of the faithful who gather each week in this place.  I see grace.”  But until then, I close my eyes and I see your faces, and I see grace.