Living in Grace

[NOTE: Still in Milwaukee, and reflecting on some of the lessons I’ve learned—so far—from my almost two-year-old nietecita.]

Throughout the week, I have been pondering the concept of GRACE.

So after everyone went to bed, I googled the word and came up with several ideas:

1. Grace is God's unmerited favor.
2. It is kindness from God we don't deserve.
3. There is nothing we have done, nor can ever do to earn this favor.
4. It is a gift from God.
5. God gives his Grace to us free of charge.
6. All God encourages us to do is that we receive his Grace and walk by Grace.

I also learned that St. Paul calls the gospel of Grace a mystery. And the Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasizes that:

Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. Grace is a participation in the life of God.

It stikes me that artists clearly understand Grace as a gift, a mystery, an undeserved help that shapes their writing, their form or creation. As painter Alfonse Borysewicz notes in his essay, "Naked Grace" in IMAGE, the journal:

I feel that my painting, maneuvered by grace, has led me to a physical theology, that is, inspiration given form and color.

If Grace is a participation in the life of God—and all God encourages us to do is to receive his Grace and walk by Grace, then it seems to me that our children and grandchildren are perhaps our best teachers of what this means.

What I witness when I am with Elena, is a child with such complete trust and confidence in her mom and dad’s complete love for her, no matter what, that everything she does, says, and lives is based on freedom and self-assurance. Elena has, without a doubt, already experienced the fullest meaning of God's Grace.