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Quick. Grace or shame? What's your go-to? To which do you cling? If shame believes one lacks what it takes to be loved and must endeavor to earn it back, then grace is the antidote, the proof, as Erickson argues, that God-with-Us is never withheld from us.
Jesus shows up even though we aren't morally or spiritually perfect. Jesus shows up even though we haven't done anything to earn his presence. It is through grace that Jesus arrives in the messiness of our lives. God-with-us, the giver and the gift—a thousand times better than anything Amazon could deliver to your doorstep in this season.
How will you cultivate grace in this season? For others? For yourself? Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, the first Black senior pastor of Middle Church in Manhattan (founded in 1628), writes, "And you? You are responsible for creating the space to grow love for yourself. For turning your stories upside down, for looking at them—all of them—clear-eyed and truthfully, to find where the love is. You're responsible for being rigorously curious about how you came to be you, about the stories that formed you and the stories that formed your caregivers. What did they pass down? What did you learn from the amazing moments and the painful ones? How do you make meaning of your life? And where do you go from here? What do you want to become? How do you write the story you want for yourself, with love at the center?"
How do you write the story you want for yourself, with love at the center?
With grace and truth. That's how. Even when you only feel half full.
May you be filled with the presence of God-with-us, the giver and the gift, in this season, and may grace and truth be not only realities you understand, but realities you give to others.
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