A Measure of Grace

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see one of my students play in a high school soccer game.  This particular day was warmer than most, so I stopped by a gas station to grab a Powerade to drink during the game.  So I walked in the store, grabbed a grape Powerade and went to pay.  As I sat the drink on the counter, this odd exchange happens:

Clerk: “No, no, no.”

Me: “Oh, sorry!!  Do I need to get another one?”

Clerk: “No.  You don’t need to pay.”

Me: “Huh?  Here’s a couple of bucks…”

Clerk: “No.  Just take it.  It is on me.”

Me: “Wow.  Thanks man!  God bless you bro!”

So I walked out….looking around making sure somebody wasn’t chasing after me for shoplifting.  As I got in my car, I just sat and smiled.  “Thanks God,” I said out loud in my car.  It wasn’t like I had won the lottery or scored $500, but I got something for free that I didn’t deserve.  It was a small measure of God’s grace.

Such a small moment can be seen as dumb luck or simply overlooked altogether, but it is one small example of God’s grace to us.  His grace doesn’t come only in life saving moments like the Cross.  His grace can be shown to me in a $1 grape sports drink.  His grace comes in all shapes and sizes and we have to be ready to recognize that.  Grace isn’t always measured in life altering moments.  Scripture is saturated with accounts of God’s grace.  All these accounts reveal God’s provision for His children in an array of means.  We see the nation of Israel in Exodus shaded by cloud at day & pillar of fire by night, God feeds those same people with manna and quail, He sustains Israel with food in the midst of famine in the days of Joseph & Ruth, Jesus turns water into wine at a marriage feast and even Jesus feeds the 5,000 with a kid’s daily catch and lunch bread.

We live in a day when we are immersed in negativity and terrible news.  We are in desperate need of encouragement.  In the midst of that tidal wave of bad news, we are in the midst of God’s grace.  We just need to recognize it as that.  The thing about God showering grace on us, is that sooner or later we come to expect it.  We become numb to it.  Did the nation of Israel constantly praise God for parting the Red Sea, for manna & quail and for the cloud & pillar of fire?  No.  They had come to expect it.

What measure of God’s grace have you come to expect?  To demand?  I pray you take stock of the smallest blessings all the way up to the remarkable redeeming work of the Cross.  As you do, the flood of God’s grace in your life will be very evident.  So take time and look at the vastness of God’s grace in your life.  Bask in the ocean of God’s grace.