A picture of God's grace

                                                                                       Video by David Arms from vimeo

Grace.  God's grace.  Never ending, always present.  I mess up, I receive His sweet mercy and grace.  I confess, ask for help, thanking Him and praising Him for loving me, for dying for me. I am forgiven. I am refreshed. I am strong.

And then, it happens again...I am in need of grace, that never ending deep well, which I seem to dip into far to often. I feel so unworthy. I again confess and repent.  And yet He still loves me...still covers me with His grace.

I realize in a moment of clarity...that there is nothing I could ever do to make Him not love me and always offer His grace.  Nothing.  I realized this in a moment of clarity that happened 30,000 feet above the earth in a plane taking me home.  What made me think of this as I am traveling 500 miles per hour hurling through the upper atmosphere?  It was a conversation my ears were not meant to hear. A conversation between a mother and child. A conversation about being liked when behavior is good.  A conversation of our worth being tied to what we do or don't do.  That may be what  humans hearts think, but it is NOT what our God thinks.  He says we are worthy, NOT because we have done something, but because He died for us.  That and that alone,  is what makes any of us worthy.  His love which provides that constant, never ending grace, when our behavior isn't so good, or our thoughts aren't so nice, it is His love that makes us worthy. 

Proverbs 31 is a familiar passage to most.  It contains what we call the worthy woman.

A worthy woman who can find?  For her worth is far above jewels"  Proverbs 31: 10

The rest of the chapter goes on to describe the hardworking, goodness and kindness of this worthy woman.  She is exhausting to most of us. And we look at her today and think, man I don't come even close to that.  

Well I have some news for you.  You are that worthy woman.  And it is not about what you do or don't do. It is about Him and His love and grace, that endless, ever present grace.   You are worthy, you are worth far more than jewels to Jesus Christ.  He gave His life for YOU, and that makes you very worthy indeed! 



Authors note:
To the little boy and young mom on the plane:  Forgive me for my intrusion into your life.  Out of frustration, in a plane where everyone can hear and see a child suddenly acting,  well,  like a child, you were doing the best you knew how.  All I wanted to tell you was that you ARE doing OK.  Your eyes teared up when I asked if I could help.  And I wanted to tell you then, it's ok.  You are ok, you are a good mother. Good moms make mistakes sometimes.  And God's grace is there for those moments,  His endless, ever present grace.