by Richard Lawry

Created on: December 04, 2008

Grace seems to often pop up in places that I never expect it. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that simply stated "Grace Happens". It is true. Grace happens. It happens all around us. Often we are too busy to notice.

Yesterday was Halloween. My wife had bought lots of candy in preparation for the kids she was expecting to come to our door. She was prepared to give candy, and lots of it, to anyone who rang her doorbell. She waited with anticipation, because she loves to see the kids in their costumes. The doorbell rang for the first time. She went to the door and opened it with a bowl of candy in her hand. There stood two kids, but they didn't have anything to put candy in. They didn't say trick or treat. They stood there with a long stemmed rose in their hand. "We are not asking for candy", they said. "We want to give you a rose".

Unexpected grace. Out of the blue. I never thought that on Halloween someone would come to my door and give me something. I think that is a key to understanding grace. We Christians often focus on the fact that grace is undeserved. That is true, it is undeserved. If you deserved it, it wouldn't be grace. But not only is it undeserved, it is unexpected.

I think that is what Paul is trying to get us to see when he wrote in Ephesians 3:8, "to me, who am less than the least deserving of all the saints, this grace was given". He seems to be almost unable to believe that grace was offered to him. It was not only undeserved, it was unexpected. Maybe that is why he talks about grace more than any other Bible writer.

Amazing Grace is probably the best known Christian hymn. I never tire of hearing it. The song was written by John Newton, who was a seaman from the age of eleven when he first went to sea with his father who was the commander of a merchant ship.
He eventually became captain of his own ship, which was involved in the slave trade.

Although he had had some early religious instruction from his mother, he had long since given up any religious convictions. Once, on a homeward voyage, while he was attempting to steer the ship through a violent storm, he experienced what he was to refer to later as his "great deliverance." He recorded in his journal that when all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, he exclaimed, "Lord, have mercy upon us." Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him.

After a serious illness, he had given up seafaring forever. He lived in Liverpool, where he came to know George Whitefield, evangelistic preacher, and leader of the Methodist Church. Newton became Whitefield's enthusiastic disciple. During this period Newton also met and came to admire John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. John became the pastor of the church in Olney, and besides preaching, wrote many hymns.

"Amazing Grace" was among those hymns, and it came from his life experiences. Throughout his life, God's grace remained an amazing thing to John.

"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound; That saved a wretch like me. To John Newton God's grace was undeserved, unexpected, and amazing. Unexpectedly grace washed over the rough tough captain of a slave ship.

Look for the unexpected today. Look for grace in unexpected places. I know that you will find it. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 1:14, "the grace of our Lord is exceedingly abundant".

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