Sunday, April 22, 2007

Ladies' Retreat

This is a short thought that I wrote about grace for my home church's ladies' retreat. My mom and Pat (my second mom) asked me to post this -- hope you all enjoy!

"I was joking with a friend today that I am really special because the Bible talks about me so much. I told my friend that there are even several songs written about me, and that while others sing “Amazing Grace,” I simply sing, “Amazing me.” Obviously I’m not serious, but I think this is actually closer to the truth than we’d like to admit. The definition of grace is “unmerited divine assistance given humans for their sanctification.” This is a beautiful image, made even more so by the fact that this grace is truly unmerited. We have forfeited our right to God’s favor, and we continually renew this forfeiture every single day, yet He continues to bestow it upon us. We don’t simply stumble and fall, we voluntarily throw ourselves down on the asphalt over and over again, only to have God pick us up and heal us every single time. In the song “Dandelions” by Five Iron Frenzy, God is compared to a mother who receives a gift of dandelions from her child. The mother doesn’t simply see a fistful of ragged weeds, she sees a bouquet of flowers fit for any queen. By all rights, we are nothing but weeds, but through God’s grace we are made into beautiful flowers."

1 comment:

Danny said...

Dandelions is my all-time favorite FIF song!