The Mysterious Grace of God

I love this time of year. Yesterday we were able to sit outside and relax after the Colts lost the football game. They played a good game, Texas was just better at it. So, it wasn't so bad. Now outside was awesome with a slight breeze, two beautiful children playing in the yard, and a book to read. It was a perfect Sunday. As I sat there, I recalled something that John Shewell wrote a few years ago:

ON an early autumn day, I looked up from my morning prayer to see myriad colorful leaves falling lazily to earth. As I gloried in and marveled at God's wonderful handiwork, I realized that the falling leaves could symbolize God's grace.

This grace comes to us freely, in God's own time and independent of our merit. The leaves fall because of the properties God has mysteriously given the trees and the earth. Grace comes to us because of the mysterious purposes of God. The twists and turns and shapes and colors of the falling leaves are like the infinite variations of God's grace. Grace manifests itself in us and through us in surprising ways.

The far distance shimmered with ever-changing colors and depth. My mind knew what my eyes could not distinguish, that individual leaves were falling there, just as they were nearby. In a similar way, a heart familiar with God's grace knows that it is everywhere. Infinite, endless, and timeless, grace falls on all of us to change our lives.

In Ephesians 2:8 Paul wrote, "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." The gift is amazing and it carries us through every great Sunday afternoon and every stormy crisis this life has to offer. I praise Him for the grace, for the Fall and for all the love that brings us abundant life.

You know I love ya and enjoy this wonderful season, Don