HEALED ON THE WAY

Learning grace is slow and hard the way recovery of any kind is usually slow and hard.

When a bone is broken or a muscle torn, no supply of godly wishing can speed the pace at which the healing happens. This moment’s not for optics, not for show: nothing less than patient, cellular recovery can make us whole again.

And so no project that contemplates the complete overhaul of our personal theology, the transformation of our hearts and minds, and the mending of our wounded relationships should be described as easy or expected in less than years or even decades. Hear the present, active tense of these amazing verbs:

“Bless the Lord, O my soul,

  and forget not all His benefits,

who forgives all your iniquity,

  who heals all your diseases, 

who redeems your life from the Pit,

  who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

who satisfies you with good as long as you live

  so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:2-5).

We may sometimes be privileged to discern the day on which grace first began to heal us. But it will take millennia at least to help us comprehend the length and breadth and height and depth of grace beyond degree.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott