I learnt the worldly definition of grace long before I experienced the biblical definition. I remember a time in my teenage years, when I was far from God, stumbling upon a blog post where a christian woman wrote about what grace meant to her and I was confused when smoothness, elegance and saying a prayer before dinner weren’t mentioned. As it turns out grace can be a tricky thing to articulate and hard to put a finger on

Grace is…Love. Love like our Father in heaven loves us. Loving those who are hard to love. Loving yourself and not comparing yourself to others because you are wonderfully and fearfully made, there is no one else like you.

One of the first things the flight attendant says when we are seated for take off is, ‘in the event of any emergency, put your own oxygen mask on first, before helping others”. If oxygen isn’t flowing into our own lungs first, we are in no position to help others get access to oxygen either, so both our lives are at stake.

Grace. Not just a noun or name we would have given our firstborn if he was a girl. Grace is a word that can be used in many scenarios and sentences, all of which can alter the meaning of the word. When researching the root-meaning of Grace in Hebrew I found it can depict: Graciousness, favour, prettiness, mercy or pardon, help, finding refuge and/or salvation.

I was at a prayer meeting this year, where Ps Audrey encouraged us to get prostrate and ask God if there were any idols in our lives. As I lay there, face down to the carpet there was a quick response…”Perfection.”

John Wesley defined grace as “the undeserved, unmerited, and loving action of God in human existence through the ever-present Holy Spirit.”

He believed that Grace pervades all of creation and is universally present.

She walks into a room

without a thought of what she might encounter.

Breathing life into those long dead

She sings a song of freedom.