Grace

My mom taught me how to knit when I was in second or third grade. I decided that I would knit a washcloth for my teacher. I remember putting hours of work into it and being really excited to give it to her. I wrapped it up and bringing it to school the day before Christmas break. She unwrapped it and her face lit up when she saw it. I told her I made it myself. She was bursting with excitement about the beautiful washcloth I had knit for her. I felt so proud.

I smile every time I think about that story. Partly because I remember how good it felt to give a special gift to someone but mostly because I know what that washcloth looked like. It was the first thing I had knit so it wasn’t very good. There were mistakes everywhere and there were lots of loose knots. It was full of holes. It probably would have disintegrated if my teacher tried to scrub a plate with it.

My teacher didn’t like the washcloth because of the quality, it was because I made it. Rather than making it less valuable, its imperfections actually made it more valuable to her because they reminded her that it came from me.

I think the word for that is grace.

Grace is what bonds us together as humans (and what bonds us to God). When we accept the imperfections of others, we are showing grace. If we were all perfect, we wouldn’t need grace. But then we probably wouldn’t need each other either.

I made the videos below for my church. They would never make it on television. They are full of imperfections. But the people in the videos love them because they represent our relationships with each other. They are full of grace.

(If you love me, you’ll at least watch the first couple minutes of the first video. It goes downhill from there but it’s worth it.)

Advertisement