Mercy vs. Grace

God’s grace is sufficient for us anywhere His providence places us.  Unknown

The words mercy and grace seem very similar, but if you look carefully, their meanings are different.  Mercy is God’s compassion when we deserve punishment thus delivering us from judgment.  Grace, on the other hand, is God’s blessing us even when we don’t deserve it.  Last week, I received both.

A traffic ticket has been haunting me for months now.  The citation was for a “move over law” violation.  I felt that I was wrongly charged, but after my court day, the possibility of this dragging on endlessly, and points on my license to consider, I ended up giving in.  I admit to feeling frustrated with the whole thing.

I grudgingly wrote a check for $500 (which is so outrageous, but it’s standard for that offense), and taking a defensive driving course to remove points from my license.  The lesson learned, I moved on, but the whole thing was never far from my mind.

Arriving home, a couple of weeks later, I got the mail.  Included in the mail was a note to me, so I opened it expecting a thank you for a wedding or baby gift.  Imagine my surprise when five crisp one hundred dollar bills fell out along with an unsigned note.  The note was so heartfelt, kind, generous, amazing, lovely, merciful, and so many other adjectives that I felt myself crying in spite of myself.  It ended by saying, “You don’t need to know who this is.  Just know it’s somebody who loves you and thinks you were treated unfairly.”  Who would do that for me?

I immediately began to list folks who might do this, so I could return the money or at least thank them.  It is so much harder for me and most of us to accept gifts rather than give them.

God talks about every good and perfect gift being from above in  James. During our years in ministry, there have been countless gifts which have come our way in many different forms, but this time the gift had a sense of mercy and grace.  Mercy because it wasn’t their punishment but mine, and Grace because the gift certainly wasn’t deserved.

In the course of trying to understand the two words and the power behind them, it seems the only true course is to accept the mercy and grace God offers through the actions of others.  It also seems to be the recipient’s duty to pass that love, mercy and grace on to others.  My prayer is that I can show the same mercy and grace to someone along the way.

Just when you think nothing good can come from a bad situation, God steps in and turns it around!  I’m so grateful for His angels that do His work.