Grace makes a soul feel stronger – more grown up, so to speak – as a child of God.
I love a beautiful pair of shoes. I always have. Ever since I was a very little girl and saw my first pair of sparkly ruby red mary-janes in Target while shopping with my mother I have loved shoes. While I do not wear beautiful shoes all day any more, I often wear lovely shoes while I am in business meetings or when I go out with my family for a dinner. I do not – however – have much interest in handbags. Though I have carried some lovely handbags in my lifetime, handbags have never really been a hugely interesting thing to me because I do not like the inconvenience of having my hands full…
My daughter on the other hand loves both pretty shoes and handbags.
The other day she turned ten years old. This is a very big deal for a child her age – you see it is a “double digit” age and that means that she considers herself all grown up. For the last year or so, she had quietly collected an old handbag of mine, that I was no longer using, and began wearing it around with her wherever she went. If we went shopping, she would take the handbag with her. If we went to dinner, she would carry it with her then. If we went to visit her cousins, the handbag would come along too.
Inside the handbag she carries a doll or two and a few bits and pieces – some pencils in case she wants to colour in, a few bits of paper and whatever little trinkets she considers valuable on that particular day.
I had been watching my little girl with her handbag for all these months and I had seen how much she enjoyed wearing her bag. She often told me that wearing a handbag made her feel all grown up.
And so, when she turned ten years old, one of her birthday presents was a little handbag and a wallet from Kmart. It was probably the cheapest thing I could have bought for her, and boy oh boy did she love that gift…
And I have been thinking about that today. You see, that handbag of my daughter’s reminds me of Grace! Grace makes a soul feel stronger – more grown up, so to speak – as a child of God. And just as my daughter puts tings into her handbag that make her feel special and things that she values, so too does Grace allow a soul to understand what is valuable and what should be protected in this world. And just as I saw that my daughter took very good care of my old handbag, and I therefore gave her a brand new handbag, God watches to see what we do with the Grace that He sends to us, and then gives us more as we merit it through our efforts and love.
And I have been thinking about that today, as I look at my daughter carrying her handbag…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.