Again and Again

I felt it again this morning in church. That indescribable awareness of God's holiness versus my innate sinfulness. It's such a paradox. You would think that this awareness would be a terrible thing, but unfailingly, it is the purest joy I have ever known.

It's about grace. The real cost of it. Grace is cheap and worthless if we think we deserve it somehow. But when we understand the real cost of it, the fact that we could never do anything to even begin to earn it, then, and only then, do we have any understanding of how amazing grace is.

I'm not kidding when I say that I am sitting here and I can't even think of words to describe the infinite, incomprehensible, magnitude of grace.

But God gives it to us. And He doesn't just give us enough to get by, He lavishes it on us. He slathers thick, dense layers of grace all over our wounds and scars. He picks us up from our heap and sends us soaring into the stars. He gives us a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

And to add to what is already almost more than we can understand, He declares that He loves us. He calls us treasure and jewel, pearl and joy. Consider the unlikeliness of it. The mystery, the paradox... Oh, but relish it, delight in it, sing for joy and celebrate it.

Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant
Oh come ye, oh come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him, born the king of angels
Oh come let us adore Him
Oh come let us adore Him
Oh come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord.

May we all adore him.

Romans 11:33

"O the depth of the riches and of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!"