As a “tech savvy grandfather,” I asked my granddaughter how I might best research this subject on line. She immediately indicated that I should just search Google; a task which I could handle. I carefully searched for “What is grace?” and to my astonishment received 837 million results. This suddenly looked like a larger task than I thought.

The very first result, however, got me revved. Grace is “the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.” Looking a bit further, I found a clever acronym, “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” Grace has to do with Christ’s unselfish sacrifice for our sins. It is an unmerited, undeserved gift given to us from God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Now that I had this Google thing down, I tried “How do I give Grace?” That resulted in a mere 368 million results. After sifting through quite a few, I concluded that the majority of religious scholars tend to believe that only God can grant grace.

But then I thought about the November countdown to sharing, where Grace Lutheran Church provided 500 volunteers for “Feed my Starving Children”, 359 Operation Christmas Child boxes for children in poor countries around the world, 246 coats for “Hope 4 Youth in Anoka”, 365 pairs of mittens for Sand Creek Elementary in Coon Rapids, and 101 volunteers for “Family Promise.” The time and gifts were given unselfishly, not for personal gain or recognition, but to provide help to our neighbors in need. I can’t help but believe there is grace in there somewhere. It gives me a greater appreciation for what a remarkable place Grace Lutheran Church is and what the word Grace in our name stands for.

Actions such as these give credibility to how Grace Lutheran Church defines itself as, “A ministry of Grace in the heart of Andover, Minnesota and beyond…. to renew our baptism, be transformed, and then God sends us into our daily lives to be the hands and feet of Jesus with our neighbors both near and far… We are an open community where all are welcome.” We at Grace truly have been blessed with the grace of God.

Wishing all a Merry Christmas and a new year filled with God’s Grace.

God Bless,

Dennis Grabowski