But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. (Ephesians 4:7, ESV)
“Morning, Mom,” my son said.
“Morning.”
I walked through the kitchen slowly. The hour was early and a half-cup of coffee with cream wasn’t enough.
“How did you sleep? May I have a hug?” he asked. He swept in with lanky teen arms. I should have been grateful that a young-man-boy still wanted a hug from his mama, but his arm hit my mine, I dropped the coffee mug, and it smacked the floor. Coffee splashed high and ran down the fridge, down the front of the oven. It hit the cabinets and sweet, sticky rivulets trickled down cherry wood.
And as easily as the mug left my fingers, angry words left my lips.
I am a sinner. I can fall so hard. I can fall so fast.
READ MORE: AVOIDING ANGER AND EXTENDING GRACE
I’d just finished my Bible reading for the day, yet transgression happened in a heartbeat. It wasn’t pre-meditated. Or planned. Sometimes anger is my first, fleshy response.
And whosoever shall keep the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. (James 2:10, ESV)
As I stood there, with a boy crouched on the floor with paper towels in his hands, I understood my need for grace. It’s not so much the big infractions that keep me desperate. It’s the small stuff. The words that flash through my mind in an instant. The off-the-cuff attitudes. The judgments and the reactions and the self-serving mental ambitions.
It’s the moment-by-moment humanness that keeps me starved for grace. It’s the fast grime and grit that keep me in deep need.
Without the Lord, I’d be lost. A minute of breath would prove me unfit for an eternity with a holy God.
But His gift of grace is one that I receive with a wide-open spirit. It’s a gift I receive with the humility of need. And the amount of grace? It’s been measured. And it’s sufficient. It’s more-than-enough.
So what is a mama to do?
Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Peter, 1:2 ESV)
I apologized to my sweet son. Together he and I wiped morning mess from the cabinets, appliances and floors.
And I thanked the Lord that peace can be mine.
Especially when I need moment-by-moment grace.
