Ordinary People Or Even Scandalous People Ushering in Grace

   As I was doing my devotional readings this morning one of them was the Matthew 1 the genealogy of Jesus. I read this several times a year because it reminds me of how God works.
   At first glance this does not appear to be the most stimulating reading. And yet if you take the time to look at the list as a photo book of sorts you begin to see who is in Jesus family tree. And quite frankly for me this is a grace filled, joy filled celebration of sorts, to see who is in the divine family tree. There are only five women listed, yes only five, we of course know there had to be more, but five are listed and they are interesting choices ( won't give it away so you can dust off your Bibles and read for yourself! And spend some time getting to know who they were.)
   But the genealogy in Matthew, the divine birth story of Jesus as Matthew tells it, beginning  with Abraham, demonstrates that God works through ordinary, flawed human beings to display the extraordinary things of God, and that means God can work through you and me too.
And that's my tripping into grace today!

Sometimes I come across other people's writings or pictures that give me glimpses of grace...

"Our hearts are set on pilgrim roads not to satisfy ourselves with finding one holy place,
    not to romanticize this thin place,
    but to take the experience of the Holy back into the thick of things..."

                                                                                           Murphy Davis, from Around a Thin Place

People can take journeys up to mountaintops or go to church or temple or on a pilgrimage and come off the mountaintop, out of church or temple, or back from pilgrimage, and feel a little weary, disappointed about being back in the "thick of things" in the world. But as Murphy Davis points out and as countless saints have discovered there is the beautiful opportunity to take the experience of the Holy back into thick of things...to be blessed while being a blessing.

My blog "Tripping into Grace" has taken a long vacation...but I have been inspired to trip back on to the scene...so watch out for signs and posts of what I see as grace all around...sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, often mundane, most likely caught off guard by grace and how I see myself and sometimes others tripping into this amazing gift...