It is good to be back and it is with mixed emotions that I write this first post after returning.  However, the important thing to communicate this day is that it is all about God’s grace – and to that end here are a couple of quotes from people I read when I need to be reminded of God’s gift of grace.

The first is from Gerald May*:  “Grace is the active expression of God’s love.  God’s love is the root of grace; grace itself is the dynamic flowering of this love; and the good things that result in life are the fruit of this divine process . . . God spontaneously gives us beauty and breath and touches of love . . . there is grace in the steady self-giving of God that protects our freedom and keeps us yearning.” (120)

The second from the pen of Frederick Buechner**:  “Grace is something you can never get but can only be given.  There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about . . . the grace of God means something like: ‘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 will happen.  Don’t be afraid.  I am with you.  Nothing can ever separate us.  It’s for you I created the universe.  I love you.’  There’s only one catch.  Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it.” (139)

It is good to be back and alive in the world of God’s grace, mercy, love, and perfect justice.

*May, Gerald G., M.D.  Addiction and Grace.  San Francisco:  Harper and Row, Publishers, 1988.

**Buechner, Frederick.  Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC’s of Faith.  San Francisco:  Harper Collins Publishers, 2004.