God’s grace comes often in severe ways to open our eyes to a greater reality that we have yet experienced. Our part is to be open to it and let it transform us.
In speaking about Mary the mother of Jesus, Craig Barnes writes, “God has interrupted our ordinary expectations, as cherished as they were, to conceive something. We can’t manage it. We can’t even understand it. All we can do is receive it. Because if God has conceived this thing, then it is holy, and it will save our lives.”[1]
Like Mary, relinquishing our own plans is necessary if we are going to respond to thespiritual reality that is unfolding in the midst of our own human drama. It requires an inner vision that enables us to perceive far more than the human eye can see and comprehend. It calls us to rise above our own pain and confusion to belief that our salvation comes in unexpected, often unwelcomed ways.
Someone has said, “The healthy religious person is the one who allows God to save.” This often comes in our lives by making a commitment, like Mary, without knowing much about what it will entail or where it will lead.
[1] M. Craig Barnes, When God Interrupts, (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1996), p.41.
Gail Johnsen 