pondering grace.

I have had opportunity over the past week to spend some time reflecting and in quiet. It has been welcomed admidst a season of chaos.

I had an assignment last week Wednesday to spend a couple hours reading through a chapter in a book called “Touch the World through Prayer” and then reflect. I gathered a large blanket, a full and potent cup of coffee and made my way into the backyard, journal, bible and pen in hand to soak up some Gretna sun!

I didn’t make it far into the chapter before I became incredibly captivated by the story of Moses in Exodus 33 and 34. The story is not unfamiliar, but as I sat on the grass asking God to awaken me to see and hear new things, I was drawn in to this beautiful story. In short, the story goes like this, Moses is on Mount Sinai and is meeting with God. He asks God if he might be able to see the Glory of God. The response Moses receives is not what he was hoping for. God places Moses in the cleft of a rock, covers his eyes until the Glory of the Lord passes him by and then allows Moses to take in what remains after the Glory passes. Moses is allowed to see the back of God.

“One cannot see the face of God and still live.”

To see God’s glory in partial was meant to be enough for Moses. Can you imagine what it must be like to take in the Glory of God in full? God’s glory, His power, His name, His authority is beyond what we can even imagine. Can we be satisfied in experiencing the presence of God only in part?

Sometimes I think I am fearful of experiencing God’s glory. In asking to see the Glory of God, there is responsibility that accompanies that request. Can I be obedient in what results and the responsibility that accompanies an encounter like that? Sometimes not. But we are invited to come. We are invited to approach the throne of God with confidence and with authority. Seeing the Glory of God should not ignite in us a spirit of fear, but rather stir in us a craving for more because we have yet to take in the glory and the presence of God in its fullness.

Unlike Moses, we have been invited to approach the throne of God because grace covers us. I find myself contemplating if I truly understand and know what it means to be clothed in the grace of Christ. Do I choose to walk confidently in the knowledge and in the power of grace?

The other day someone shared with me the story in Luke 7 about the unclean woman who washes the feet of Jesus with her tears.

I think what I love about this story  in Luke– or at least find intriguing about it – is that this woman chooses to act in boldness as she approaches the feet of Christ. There is a beautiful act of worship that is performed – it is intimate and done in a spirit of humility. Despite any choices this woman may have made in her life, the broken relationships and the emotional baggage that accompanies her, she does not shy away from approaching the throne of God. She does not let the sin in her life or the brokenness stop her from continuing to walk in the direction of Jesus. She boldly comes and Jesus commends her for the love that she has shown him. 

She then is invited to go –to live freely and to exhale peace.

Oh what it would mean to exhale peace - to breathe in the grace and love of Christ and breathe out peace. What a beautiful rhythm. To imagine that grace entering your body, giving life to each part, allowing that grace to sustain life. 

Grace breathes life.

I am challenged - challenged to approach the throne of God with confidence. Do I dare to come boldly? God longs for me to worship at his feet. I have been created to worship – invited to come as I am. I am invited to come confidently, but also in a spirit of humility. I am invited to bathe in the grace that Christ as I come. My heart craves to be in the presence of Christ – to take in the fullness of His Glory, to kneel at the feet of Jesus and worship the power and the glory that is His Name.