Grace

While I was waiting for the bus this evening, I was thinking about sin. Specifically MY sin and what I needed to do this evening to combat it. Pray, read Scripture, maybe skip a meal (one of my sins is gluttony- I love to eat). More than these things I need to see my sin as God sees it. I've been reading in the Old Testament and woven throughout the prophets and the law is God's hatred of sin. He loves his people but detests their sinful ways. So I prayed that I would see sin as God sees it and hate it accordingly.

 But, on the flip side, I need to see God's grace. To, as Paul writes, "have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV) I then prayed that I may grasp God's grace shown though Jesus Christ. By this time, the bus was late. I mean, really late. I looked at my phone and saw it was 9:20 (19 minutes late. I started to walk quickly to the next available bus stop (at the end of my long street). I won't write what was going through my mind. Grumble, grumble, complain, complain all the way.

Crossing the bridge over the interstate, I was caught up in my own complaining/pity party and I neglected to watch where I was walking..

I stumbled and fell off the high curb onto the street. I manage to break my fall but scraped my hand up. By the time I picked myself up, I was even more behind schedule and I had to run, bleeding hand and all, to catch the bus. Thankfully, I caught the bus and dripping with sweat, collapsed into a seat, still fuming about why bus 19 never showed up.






Then it hit me. I fell face first into a somewhat busy street after dark. By the laws of probability, I should have been run over. But there was no traffic. Not one car.

  Grace

Pure,undeserved grace. God showed me his grace just as I had requested. I, just like the Israelites (who I am now reading about), have a stubborn heart and a thick skull. And just like He gave object lessons to the Hebrew children, God still does so today. I think many times I'm just not listening.