Grace.....

I drove by a church this morning and the sign read "God and our congregation gave 3000 cans ad 518 weekend packs to hungry children this week."

This made me wonder if God helped them give meals - did he also help those children into poverty?

When one of the parents at our school was dealing with terminal cancer I remember the Principal at the time remarking that her son was diagnosed with Brain Cancer at age 10. She said it was awful and horrifying and even though people were supportive she would get angry every time someone said "There but for the Grace of God" (attributed to Jon Bradford, English Preacher 1510-1555)

At first I was taken back because I have heard that phrase quite often. I thought it was like  "Bless your heart" and "God love ya'".  I was curious, where was she going with this? She continued, "So you have God's grace and I don't?"

Talk about hitting you in the gut. I never thought of the phrase like that. From the other person's perspective.  If your child never gets cancer are you blessed with grace and the other's are not? If you have enough to eat is it because God loves you more than he does the people without food?

Her words have made me think and question the idea of grace more than once and I guess driving by that church this morning with it's big billboard announcing how many people they graced with their bounty it just begged the question - if God helped, would she really need the recognition?