Secondhand grace
At the beginning of May, I traveled to New York City to attend a conference on grace. Not a professional development conference. Not a ministry conference. Not even a networking conference (though friends were made!). Just a group of Christians gathering in a Manhattan church to talk about how God’s grace has brought long sought-after relief to their lives. What a relief it was for me to be at the receiving end of those stories and prayers, and to discover my own little moment of grace.
On the final full day of the conference, everyone was resting together and taking a breather from these passionate stories of faith. As we sipped on beverages and munched on carrot sticks, one of the conference goers stepped to the front of the nave and shared with us his own personal gift: magic tricks. “Jim the Great,” as he styled himself, delighted us with simple sleight-of-hand, mystical unlocking rings, and heavenly rope that could untie itself.
In the midst of the applause, the cheering encouragement, and laughter of surprise at a trick done well, my attention was caught by something. I looked around this church filled with fully grown adults all of whom were captured by this magician, another humble child of God wanting to share his delight with others. Here was a room filled to the brim with joy, a group of people connected through a shared experience of God’s grace.
I’ve come to learn that whenever I see or experience joy, I should expect to find God. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul calls joy one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Joy is evidence of God’s presence. Not just within a place, but within a person, too. It’s Paul’s way of saying, if you’ve got joy, you’ve also got God.
While I spend a lot of my time, energy, and prayer focusing my attention on God’s presence in my own life, this moment of communal joy reminded me of an equally important part of faith: witnessing God’s presence in the lives of others. It probably happens more often than we realize: noticing the piety of our pew neighbor who receives communion in profound reverence, in deep need of Jesus’ nourishment. The giggles of four-year-olds running around a playground captured by their own imaginations. The adult child who patiently gives up so much of their time and energy each day to care for their aging or ill parent.
God’s presence lives abundantly within us. And it is flourishing around us constantly. Maybe God draws our attention to our neighbor’s moments of divine contact as a way to say, “See? Here I am. I am with you, and all of you, always.” Perhaps in savoring the spiritual fruits of others we might discover a moment of God’s grace in our life today.
