Grace

I did a funeral for a friend of mine today. She was a wonderful woman. Amber and I first met Kathy when she was our realtor. She was so patient with us. Cancer is a terrible disease and Kathy died too young. I was touched to hear the words of her friends, co-workers, and grand-daughters.

I shared about God's grace (thanks to Frederick Buechner for helping me understand grace):

Death is a mystery.
Life is God’s gift to us.
What we make of that life is our gift to God.

Living has very little to do with a heart that beats or lungs that breathe.
Living has to do with serving, smiling, crying, relating, laughing, and loving.

Grace is what we need most in life. Grace is forgiveness from the past, power in the present, and hope for the future.

Grace is something we can never get, but only be given. There is no way to earn it or deserve it any more than we deserve the taste of fresh ice cream or earned our own birth.

A good sleep is grace. So is a good dream. Laughter is grace and so are most tears. The smell of fresh rain is grace and so is a kiss from a child. Somebody loving you is grace and loving somebody is also grace.

Grace is the central theme of the Bible. It is how the world began and is how the world will end. God is the Alpha and the Omega; the beginning and the end. He is the giver of grace.

The grace of God means something like this: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things happen. Do not be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate you from my love.

After the funeral lunch and before picking Benjamin up from school, I got in an easy 11 miles in the hills.