What
if God's Grace Came in Packets?
By Bob
Peterson, Oct 14, 2013
In a song called
Part of the Plan, Dan
Fogelberg wrote:
I have these moments all steady and strong,
I'm feeling so holy and humble,
The next thing you know, I'm all worried and weak,
And I feel myself starting to crumble.
Often you trudge
through your days, stuck in a thick mire of habits and obligations.
You move forward, fighting the obstacles in your life, trying to give
each day some meaning, some justification. Every move you make in
your chess game is countered with a new challenge, a new threat. Your
work seems overwhelming. Bills need paying. Dishes need washing.
Clothes need laundering. Life is a struggle. Through it all, you
worry. You feel inadequate, weak, and small.
But every now and
then, something changes. You wake up feeling elated, strong, and
confident. You know you're okay. Everything in life runs smoothly,
comfortably. Even when things aren't working, you feel purposeful and
knowledgeable; stronger than the tide that threatens to carry you out
to sea. Surrounded by mindless, ignorant people, you feel nothing but
love. Engulfed by a dirty, chaotic world, you feel nothing but
empathy. Trapped inside a mundane world of physical objects, you
somehow feel connected and spiritual. As a soul, you can sit back and
laugh at the world's ridiculousness. You have an overwhelming love
for God, and gratitude for no particular reason. You can feel it:
it's God's Grace.
The next day, you're
stuck in the mire again, but that sacred touch was enough to keep you
going.
Psychologists say
that we're all bipolar to a greater or lesser degree. Everyone has
moments of being manic and being depressed, but for most people, the
peaks and valleys are small and inconsequential. Still, these moments
of grace seem to defy your normal ups and downs of life, like a
reprieve. Or a gift.
What if God has a
small pouch tied around His (or Her) waist, filled with packets of
Grace? Every day, He reaches in with a mighty hand and pinches a
carefully measured amount between his fingers. He reaches his
enormous arm over the Earth and sprinkles that grace over the
surface. If you're in the right place, God's Grace enters your body
like a drug, revitalizing you, and spreading its messages of hope:
“Everything's
going to be all right.”
“Everything
is exactly how it should be.”
“You're
right where you're supposed to be.”
“You're
good enough.”
“You
are loved.”
“You
are a child of God; you are Love incarnate.”
Grace lingers for an
hour, or a day. If you could see it, you would put it on the upturned
palm of your hand, thank it for its gifts, then blow it away in the
direction of someone who needs it more. Having done its job, the
packet of God's Grace leaves you and bounces and skips joyfully
across the surface of the Earth, looking for another life to touch.
Still, it echoes
and reverberates through your soul, until you need to be reminded again.
