On Grace
What is grace? As a follower of Jesus, it's something I think about a lot. It comes up over and over again in his teachings, not to mention in all those great old songs. Did you know that in Koine Greek (the language in which the New Testament of the Bible was written) grace, favor, good-will, blessing, gratitude, joy, delight, and thankfulness are all the same word? The word is charis . It is a word of many conjugations and derivations, a word of rich, layered meaning, bringing to mind a gift, unearned and freely given. And that's what grace is: A gift, a source of joy and thankfulness, a state of living in delight and gratitude. It's something I don't have to earn; I simply get to enjoy it. Christians often equate grace with forgiveness, and rightfully so: Forgiveness is not something one can earn; it is a gift to be given with sincerity and received with gratitude. But grace is so much more than that. Grace is the meadowlark singing out in my back past