Quarters and Grace

Happy Monday. Well it rained so hard on Friday night, I decided not to go to the parade. Saturday offered up a few hours of sunshine so I did head down to look at the old classic cars. They really are cool. With all the people, it was quite amazing and quite a gift from God that I ran into a good friend of mine whose family splits their time between here and California and hung with them for an hour or so.

Gorgeous day today. Supposed to hit 86 degrees. That’s definitely on the warm side. Summer begins officially tomorrow but decided to show up today. I’m so ready. As I was thinking of warm summer days, this picture came into view.

I’m attending a summer wedding. The church hot, the air stuffy. I feel a bit ashamed to admit it, but I’m bored. The church is large and the service long. I want the wedding to be over so I can get some fresh air. Of course, I’m mindful that this is a wedding, the most exciting day of this couple’s lives. I wish them well. I really do. But they’re not friends. More acquaintances. I don’t remember why I chose to go in the first place.

I glance over to my right and my attention is suddenly delightfully diverted by the exchange between my friend and his three-year-old-son sitting on his lap. While the bride and groom recite their vows, Aaron squirms in his daddy’s lap. Attempting to entertain his young son who is not misbehaving, but painfully bored just like me, Kelley pulls a quarter from his pocket. Then taking a pencil from the pew in front of him, draws around the quarter and hands Aaron the pencil to color in the circle.

Aaron vigorously colors the best he can, trying to stay inside the lines. But when finished, it seems he has scribbled as much on the outside of the circle as the inside. I know, it’s rather pathetic if I’m finding this more entertaining than the reason for this gathering, but frankly, I’m really hot and really bored. I keep watching. Now that Aaron’s finished, Kelley takes the pencil from his son’s hand and with the eraser, begins erasing the outside of the quarter. Kelley flicks away the eraser shavings and Aaron’s drawing now looks perfect. Colored within the lines. No mistakes.

I’m not looking for any epiphany here but God decides to give me one any way. Kelley has no idea I’m even watching him, and he certainly can’t know (nor me, for that matter) that in that moment God would teach me a lesson that would stick with me for the next 25 years—a lesson about grace. There seated next to Kelly, unknown to him, God ever so quietly whispered in my heart:

That’s what I do with you every day, Gayle. I set before you a challenge or an opportunity to serve me. You try your best to obey, to accomplish what you think I want. You try so hard to do your best and “color inside the lines.” But you’re only “three.” Though you’re clearly an adult woman, in My eyes, you’re just a snotty-nosed little kid that I love dearly. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t color inside the lines. You make mistakes. You need my help. You need my cleansing. You need my forgiveness. You need Me for everything.

And so I come along and take My eraser—that is My grace—and erase the outside of the circle, that is your mistakes, your sins, your failures. I love it when you ask me to. But even if you don’t, chances are, I’ll do it anyway. Aaron didn’t ask his father to erase the outside the circle. In fact, he wasn’t even cognizant that it wasn’t just right. But Kelley knew. And I always know.

What a kind, loving, gracious God I serve. God drove home His point. “Just as you see Aaron’s messy coloring transformed into a perfectly colored circle because of his dad’s gentle touch, so your life will be marked by My grace, Gayle. And the world will see in you a life filled with joy and contentment because of Me. Then will I be glorified.”

Is it any wonder that I have not forgotten this sweet lesson all these years later?

Blessings all.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)