Some thoughts on the Grace of God.

I was asked to offer a reflection on God’s grace for an interment of one the true gems of our congregation, Kim.

Below is my attempt to offer something meaningful.

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Think of a gift you’ve received.

But not just any gift. Think of something that you were given when it wasn’t a particularly special occasion. Not Christmas or you birthday or your graduation. Think of something you were given when you least expected it, and you were so completely overwhelmed by its thoughtfulness.

And the only thing you could possibly say in response to receiving this gift is a stunned “Thank you.”

God’s grace is a little like the gift we didn’t know we needed. And it’s so tremendous. We don’t expect it, and it catches us completely off-guard, sometimes it quite literally knocks us off our feet, and it stuns us. When we recognize this grace for what it truly is, it leaves us speechless. All of our attempts to respond to this gift seem insufficient, and so we simply say “Thank you,” and trust that there was a reason that we were given this gift.

It’s a little like love, I think. When we find that thing, that one that we weren’t expecting, it might knock us off our feet and stun us. We might be suddenly unable to speak. We trust that there’s a reason that we were given this tremendous gift…

Dan, you said that you would hold Kimberly in your heart, “and by the grace of God, go forward with her.” God’s grace holds us. It holds us when we feel unholdable. God’s grace seeks us out, finds us, holds us, and never lets us go.

We find rest in the grace of God. We find a place to set down all the things that burden us, and hold tightly to the One who loves us. Even…especially…when our bodies are ravaged and we are not our selves, the grace of God holds us tight and fast forever.

We may have no idea what that means or where it will lead us. But we trust that it’s true because we’ve felt it, and we know it to be true. And we simply say, “Thank you,” to God for the tremendous gift of God’s grace.