Common grace

In church, we've been dwelling on the word "grace," and it takes a long time for things to hit me, but tonight Pastor Mark mentioned three forms of grace: saving grace, gifting grace, and common grace. Common grace is something that we all experience but we can live in such a way to not recognize it at all. For example, it is grace that we wake up in the morning, grace that we regain consciousness, our lungs fill with air and we know a new day, grace that we witness a beautiful sunset or walk along the beach, dipping our toes in the cool, clear water. It is grace that we have friends and family who love and care for us, and on and on and on.

God's fingerprints are all around us, but how often do we see them? I like how Pastor Mark says it, that "the pixie dust is sprinkled throughout every day of our lives." Ha, we just often don't see it that way. So, common grace ... and we experience it by not just admiring life from a distance, like we would survey a painting and say, Oh, isn't that a beautiful painting? but we enter into the painting. We chase that sunset, jump in that water, talk to that stranger. We delve in and live life.

Ah, so awesome. I forget how good life is sometimes. I mean, God's grace just pours out, never ceasing, until we're all bathing in it. Even if circumstances are bad, there is still much to rejoice over. Our God, is amazing. And that is what common grace reminded me of.