Earning Grace Is Not What You Think
Because you don't.
Give up to grace. The ocean takes care of each wave til it gets to shore. - Rumi.
Recently, we experienced the glorious and unexpected gift of an early spring. To welcome the gift, we opened our doors and windows to the sounds and scents of spring.
The ongoing call of the robins serenaded us, along with the pretty-pretty chirp of the cardinals and the chimes that have followed us from home to home. With open windows and doors, we can catch the scent of far-off rain and newly blooming hyacinths.
Everything is growing and blooming sooner than normal, from the daffodils to the bluebells, with tulips not far behind. Birds are trilling, buds are swelling, and it’s easy to forget what work needs to be done behind the computer when greeted with a completely unexpected sunny day.
It’s a gift, like grace.
We did nothing to earn it. It simply is. All that grace asks of us is to make room for it.
One snowy morning, we saw a herd of deer romping in the trees and hills behind our house. After a snowfall a few days later, multiple hoof prints covered our entire yard, revealing that they had romped for a while, unnoticed this time.
In the afternoon, I glanced out of the kitchen window and saw a beautiful red-shouldered hawk sitting high in the tree, proud and regal, the ruler of our little patch of forest.
I wonder how often deer and hawks visit our home, and we don’t see them.
I know the answer. The deer, the hawk, and countless other critters visit us all the time, and we only occasionally notice them.
These creatures, too, are a gift, like grace. We do nothing to make them appear other than provide a space they would enjoy.
The only requirement is to become aware of the beauty of these creatures and enjoy them as evidence of the immensity and diversity of the infinite.
Pondering this idea of grace as a gift, I felt the real meaning behind the teaching not to seek earthly rewards but to wait for our rewards in heaven.
A misunderstanding of this teaching sets us up for suffering in various ways.
An understanding of it aligns us with grace.
We misunderstand when we believe we are humans living in a material world and that someday we will leave this material world to achieve heaven and receive our rewards.
The truth is, we don’t live on a material earth as human beings. We live in a spiritual universe, as the ideas of the divine One.
We misunderstand because we are trained to see things as material instead of spiritual and to believe in the game of lack attached to the material viewpoint.
In comparison, we rarely receive training to look at everything as it is—a spiritual fact that becomes evident through the people, places, and things we encounter—and to see consistent grace.
Grace abolishes forever the illusionary material game of lack.
Once we become aware of our true selves, the real meaning of waiting for the reward in heaven becomes clear.
Of course, we would not want to trade in the consistent grace of a spiritual universe for the fast fix of material results, otherwise known as a reward on earth.
Grace is not something we earn. It just always is. We make room within ourselves to see it.
We live in grace. We are the result of grace.
Accepting this, we experience heaven and our rewards, as the spiritual fact made evident.
We experience grace the same way we experience a beautiful spring morning—by throwing open the windows and doors of our awareness.
By listening, seeing, and accepting its presence in the beauty of a moment and the kindness and love given and received.
We know grace through the outside and internal beauty we witness and express.
Grace, like beauty and love, is ever-present wherever you are because wherever you are, there is only the Divine’s presence filling every space with grace.
Instead of working and searching for material rewards, we can expect to be consistently rewarded in the most practical manner possible as we maintain, express, and live in the awareness that grace is the substance of all life in all moments and in all ways.
It’s a practice to see the gift of grace. It’s a perception shift to acknowledge it. That’s the work that we do. And the results will speak for themselves.