“Love that reaches up is adoration; love that reaches out is affection, but love that stoops is grace.” (Donald Barnhouse, quoted by Charles Swindoll in Awakened By Grace, pg.293)

Grace is the favor that God extends to those who will receive it. When my sister Nancy was teaching first grade students , she was given a boy with bright red hair in the middle of the year, who had been expelled from two other teachers for “personality conflict.” When Nancy saw this in his folder she knew that it meant behavior difficulties, but Nancy also had bright red hair. Nancy looked at Danny, and saw her own hoped for future son. She placed his desk in front of hers, as if he were her own. Later she told me that some of the children probably thought that Danny was in fact her son.

Danny thrived in her class. When his mother came for a parent conference, she asked Nancy, “How is he really doing?” Nancy answered, “How do you think a red haired boy would do in my class?” There were tears in the mothers’ eyes when she stood up to leave. Danny had received the favor of grace, because Nancy had stooped to him.

The Bible would be an empty shell without the incidents and recognition of grace abiding among God’s people. In the Old Testament, when Jacob’s son Joseph was approached by his brothers for forgiveness for their having sold him into slavery, Joseph answered with, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” ( Genesis 50:19) Joseph’s eleven brothers received undeserved grace from Joseph, whose love stooped to his brothers.

Grace, undeserved favor, fills the Bible. The early stories of Noah and Abraham are full of the grace of God. David, too, experienced God’s grace in his life. He knew that it was his only hope: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)

In the New Testament, the apostle John wrote about grace: “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.” (2Timothy 1:9)

Nancy eventually gave birth to four sons, none of which had bright red hair, but all of them are much loved.

Love in Him,

Prue