Grace makes beauty out of ugly things

I think I’ve hinted before that Dad wasn’t the father that any of us really would have wanted. I don’t want to paint him negatively, because he was my Dad and I’ve inherited some of his traits. He really was, in many ways, a generous, truthful, and funny man with all kinds of potential.

But he failed as a husband and a Dad. There’s no other way to say it.

Enter grace.

Yesterday I saw again what God can do when one person – in this case, my mother – shows grace to a person who didn’t deserve it. Over the years, that grace worked its way throughout our family. The end result is that we gave Dad a much better send-off yesterday than he really deserved, but it was exactly the send-off that we needed to give, not based on performance but based on God’s desire that we honor our father. We got to extend the same grace to him that God has shown to us.

Yesterday I looked around at my brothers and sister and mother and realized how incredibly blessed I am. And how great grace can be.

What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Grace, U2