Grace (Eventually)

I am going back over the book Grace (Eventually)by Ann Lamott. It is a very funny and provocative book about her take on grace. Her title intrigues me and almost seems blasphemous. But today as David Rubio spoke on two stories in Mark 6, I had an epiphany. The woman with the issue of blood and Jairus's daughter both had to wait for grace--but it came eventually. The woman had to wait 12 years, and the daughter had to wait until Christ finished the woman's healing. Both stories have happy endings as grace comes when God awards it.

Aren't we all in our culture where we want and expect instant gratification too impatient to wait for grace? The old saying, "I want patience, and I want it now!" applies. I want grace, and I want it now!

Of course there are examples of instanteous healings, but more about those who waited--the lepers, the blind man at the pool, Peter's mother-in-law, the demoniac. God could have stepped in the instant they began to feel bad, but He didn't. They had to wait like us sometimes, as Lamott says, and while we wait, we "clog, and slog, and scrootch."

Sometimes we don't know when grace comes. Lamott says that she wishes that "delicate silver bells would ring to announce grace's arrival."
Me too. It is more often in hindsight that we see grace.

One thing is sure for me--Grace does come eventually, and God is consistent and constant in His blessing.