Grace is Like Sugar

In my fledgling days of Christianity - and during dark days later and probably some still to come - the idea that God would grant one the grace to weather trials, to do the right thing when it was hard, to make sacrifices wasn't especially comforting. It didn't, frankly, sound like that much of a gift that I'd have the strength to do stuff I hated and give up stuff I liked.

And sometimes it's like that. If you absolutely have to take some awful-tasting medicine, sugar can make it possible to swallow it. Not pleasant, certainly, and probably still something you'd rather avoid, but possible. That's the picture of grace I always had when I read those words words about grace enabling you to do the right thing, as if it would give you the ability to stomach things - lots and lots of things - that you'd rather avoid.

But I'd forgotten about grapefruit. Or at least, I'd forgotten that there's a lot more grapefruit in the world than there is horrible tasting medicine, and that it comes into our lives much more regularly and naturally.

Grapefruit is sour. I actually happen to like grapefruit plain, but many people do not. It's too tart, too bitter, too acidic. Add a little sugar, though, and it's delicious. Not just something you can stomach, but something really good. Sugar doesn't mask the taste of grapefruit or cover it with something different and better or mitigate it so that you can take a deep breath and force yourself to swallow. No, it draws out the best of the natural flavor of the grapefruit, mingles with it, enhances it.

Without a pinch of sugar, it would be very easy to pass on grapefruit altogether, to decide on the first taste that it was a bit too tart and never really experience the texture and the hint of sweetness and the hundred and one health benefits. But with a little sugar, it's suddenly inviting. Not something to be stomached but something you might otherwise never have enjoyed. Something you might develop a taste for even without the sugar, once you've come to know it better.

It seems to me now that it's a little that way with grace, too. Sometimes there's awful medicine to be taken and it only takes the edge off enough that it's possible to swallow. But more often there are potentially delicious fruits, and grace draws out the flavor for us in something we might otherwise never have appreciated, gives us eyes to see the appeal in something masked by our worldly views, or sets up a stepladder to a place we didn't know enough to reach for.