As a lifelong Lutheran, you'd think that I'd have any number of ways to explain the concept of grace. I might even go so far as to argue that the Lutheran idea of grace can be vastly different than ones you might find in other flavors of Christianity.
As a child, I found the concept of grace to be extremely unfair: "I could spend my whole life murdering people, and I can still go to Heaven? Why should anyone be good then?"
Now that's a point of view that's easy to counter, but in some ways, it's not really about grace. I have found that grown ups have a parallel problem with the idea of grace. It's unfathomable to many of us that God would love us just the way we are.
Most of us can believe in a God that will love us if we behave the correct way. If we can't behave the correct way, most of us can believe that God will forgive us, if we ask, if we change our ways, if we improve.
But God loves us exactly as we are right now. We don't have to become the new and improved version of ourselves to earn God's love.
This morning, I was thinking about my good teeth. I am surrounded by family members who are having issues with their teeth, but I'm not. But it's not because of anything that I do. I floss daily, but I can be somewhat careless about it. I'm lucky to have been born when I was, in an age of fluoride in the water and regular dentist visits, but so are many of my peers who are in the process of replacing many of their teeth or replacing fillings or undergoing treatments to straighten teeth.
This morning, my good teeth reminded me of God's grace. I've done nothing to deserve my good teeth, and likewise I've done nothing to deserve God's love.
The metaphor falls apart in some ways, unless I manage to keep my good teeth my whole life. Most of us are subject to decay on some level as we move through life.
Happily, God's love for each and every one of us will never decay.
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