Grace

We say it before meals (sometimes), use it in conversations, name our grandkids with it, but just what is this thing called Grace? Scripture calls it unmerited or undeserved favor, which logically implies that someone (as opposed to something, since to bestow or grant that favor requires conscious and informed thought) decides to give you more than you deserve (on the positive side), or less than you deserve (when you really had it coming). Having repeatedly been the recipient of it throughout my life, I still have yet to fully grasp it, and fear that I may in the future presume to have it coming to me when, by definition, it can't work that way. If I deserve it or have earned it, it can't be Grace, but something due me. And how does someone respond after receiving it yet again? It has humbled me, relieved me, reminded me, sobered me. If I come to expect it though, I suspect it may desert me, expose me, humble me, correct me...amazing that it can have many of the same impacts in our lives whether it is granted or witheld. Must be a God thing. Anyway, I hope somehow this is all Practically Christian 2.