Peace and Grace

I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving and spending time with all of us together talking and relaxing. It is so special to be together now that two of us are so busy with college. Kathryn and I are looking forward to all the cooking, the smells etc. It almost feels like one of those Foldgers Coffee commercials about the Holidays!!

You remember the commericals, the house is all decorated for Christmas, the family is all assembled but "Peter" who is away at college. Peter is shown driving up in the snow either early in the morning, or late at night. (Now having my own college crew, I think it is very late at night for him, early morning for everyone else!) Peter sneeks quietly into the house and turns on the Christmas tree and begins to make an aromatic pot of coffee that wakes up everyone in the house. They all run down the steps very elated to see that "Peter" is finally home and they all joyfully share a steamy cup of coffee.

When my kids were very little, these commercials would make my eyes tear up. I couldn't imagine them drinking coffee. I couldn't imagine them being grown up and away from home like "Peter." I was trying to live in an experience that God was not giving me His Grace to be living in it yet.

NOW, having a few in that stage of life, God has bestowed His favor on my heart and I can live in the grace He gives me for today! It is fun and exciting to have grown-ups for offspring! Too many times I try to look ahead and be where God does not have me nor give me grace to live. I am learning to be here in today, with today's grace for today's experiences.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. Romans 5:1-2b

Matthew Henry states that "this is a further privilege, not only peace, but grace, that is, this favour. Observe: 1. The saints' happy state. It is a state of grace, God's loving-kindness to us and our conformity to God; he that hath God's love and God's likeness is in a state of grace."

And how do I get to this happy state? Henry goes on "Not by Christ in consideration of any merit of desert of ours, but in consideration of our believing dependence upon him and resignation of ourselves to Him." Sigh, I resign.

So, I can be and AM in a happy state, a state of Grace, because I know that through Jesus and the peace and grace He has given me access to and because His divine power has given me everything I need for life and godliness through my knowledge of Him who called me by His own glory and goodness (2Peter 1:3), I can and will glorify Him and enjoy Him and each stage and day of life He gives me!

I wonder if they still run that Foldgers commercial? I know I will look at it a lot differently now! No promises it still won't make my eyes tear up, however! :)