On Grace

This thought has occurred to me more than once this weekend:

Grace - the divine enabling power offered by Jesus Christ to make us greater than we are on our own - is a gift of this season.

Just as Christmas is incomplete without Christ; without His grace, so we are incomplete. "Be ye therefore perfect", He taught, "even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Perfect, in the sense of complete, finished, fully developed.

A number of friends recently have related personal challenges - stumbling-blocks, heartache, feelings of inadequacy. But in each conversation, I hear stories of miracles, compassion, and hope. Hope in our Savior, who makes all things right. Compassion when friends band together and pray for the strength of the one in need. Miracles of peace and healing after years of searching. Grace, active in the lives of those I love, touches my heart and softens me.

Grace enables me beyond my natural capacity in ways that astound me, that cause me to drop to my knees in humility and gratitude. Friends rally around me to help me carry what must be, sometimes, a burden unknown to them. Their help eases the strain, if only for a moment, I am renewed, and I feel my own back strengthened. Problems for which I have no answers become opportunities for revelation, and God gives direction as He has promised. I plead for the Spirit's guidance, then get up and go to work, marveling at the ways in which that prayer is answered. Even when I can see no more than one step ahead, the small whisperings of peace propel me forward.

My grace is sufficient - these comforting words fill me with hope. Without Him, I am incomplete, but with Him, I am stretched, enlarged, magnified, and molded into the perfect being He has seen within me all along.