Special Gratitude Edition

This year, my annual physical was scheduled for October 31. As I made my way through the clinic, I enjoyed striking up conversations with the staff about their plans for Halloween evening. The nurse was a young mama of four littles, and she talked about how excited her kiddos were to get out and trick-or-treat. The receptionist wistfully said she no longer passed out candy – not enough kids in her aging neighborhood to go to the trouble and expense of buying candy that she herself would probably end up eating.

After I met with the doctor, he directed me to the “vampire station” to have my blood drawn. The phlebotomist had her evening plans in place. She intended to scoop up a big bowl of mint-chocolate chip ice cream and watch a couple of scary movies. I told her I was not a fan of scary stuff – being prone to nightmares – but that I was more of a “happy ending” kind of girl. We each poked a little fun at the other before she sent me on my way with teal bandage tape wrapped tightly around my left arm and three less vials of blood.

I truly do love a story with a happy ending! That’s why as I make new friends, I always ask about their stories of grace. I love to hear the endless varieties of the narrative on how God saves sinners – their lives before Christ, the moment they met Him, and the transformation He’s made in their lives since then.

Some stories are what you might call “tame” or “mild” – a child, raised in a Christian home, whose heart was convicted of sin in a Sunday school class or during bedtime prayers with a parent. A visible change in behavior may be slight if noticed at all as this new child of God continues a moral lifestyle, but on the inside? Total shift!

Other stories of grace are “wild” or “dramatic.” A person whose childhood was void of godly influence and whose life was marked by bad decisions and their painful consequences one day runs into the God Who redeems. Everything changes, and everyone notices!

And there are literally billions of unique stories of how God has stepped in and made the old new and the dead alive – all along the spectrum from “tame” to “wild.”

C.S. Lewis describes the very similar changes that take place in every single one of these very different stories…

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage; but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

God builds a palace in our hearts for His Holy Spirit to inhabit today, and one day, we’ll enter His beautiful kingdom, being led by the hand of the Savior Who is the Way. Every story of grace has a happy ending and is worth retelling over and over again – as long as we have breath. Do you have a story of grace? If not, will you ask the Lord to lead you to one of His children who is ready and willing to share God’s rescue plan with you? He will faithfully answer that prayer. May we all meet on heaven’s doorstep with our stories in hand, sharing them to God’s glory for all eternity.

Dear Author of Salvation, thank You for my story of grace. Thank You for the story of grace of each of my brothers and sisters in Christ. And thank You for the stories You’re writing even at this moment. We praise You for Your amazing ways and for Your creativity in drawing hearts to You from every tribe, language, people, and nation so that we might enjoy You forever. We look forward to an eternity of singing our thanks to You. In the beautiful Name of Jesus, amen.

*****

“‘…Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.’ So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.” – Mark 5:19-20