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Christian Viewpoint: 'Find the grace in all of God’s gifts offered to us'


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Hearing aids can change a person's life.
Hearing aids can change a person's life.

I CONFESS that my eyes were teary when Emma handed me the envelope in her office at Raigmore Hospital’s audiology department, writes John Dempster.

It contained the new hearing aids we’d just tested and a supply of spare batteries.

I was being given these. No payment was required!

I felt a surge of gratitude, a sense of ‘who am I to receive such a gift?’ But it also felt good that such a treasure had been entrusted to me. There have been moments like this throughout my life when everyday events have brought grace alive.

Grace is, to Christians, a profoundly meaningful word, describing God’s open-handed generosity to humanity. “Amazing grace!” we sing. This grace is a generosity beyond anything we deserve.

At its best, the NHS offers care on the grounds of our need, not on our ability to pay. God’s grace flows with the indiscriminate abandon of unwavering love.

My hearing aids are wonderful. I hear once more the rich aural tapestry of birdsong in the woods, the spattering of raindrops on the window, the satisfying scrunch when I’m slicing banana. Conversations flow freely. I’m asking my daughter to turn the TV volume down, rather than up.

Every good thing we receive is a gift from God. God’s grace sensitises our spiritual antennae so that we discern God’s love and the rhythms of the divine dance we are invited to join.

It's important to remember to be kind.
It's important to remember to be kind.

Grace awakens us to the God who welcomes us, acting sacrificially in order to gift us healing and wholeness. The God who encourages us, who accompanies us through painful times, who uncovers treasure in the darkness, who is with us even when we feel abandoned and broken.

This is grace, the grace of the father in Jesus’s story who runs to welcome the child returning, contrite after messing up their life.

Grace is always pure gift, offered to all of us. But we can push it away, and live as though all God’s gifts are ours by right. And we can numb ourselves to the wonder of grace by treating the people we meet daily – family, friends, cold-callers, shop staff, strangers online, other road users – with spectacular, destructive ungrace.

First thing in the morning I reach for my hearing aids. First thing in the morning, on my better days, I remind myself of grace. For it is only as we live online to divine grace that our attitude to others will be grace-filled, our steps in the dance of God’s love true and unfaltering.

As I was leaving her office, Emma said: “Just get in touch when you need new batteries. I’ll give you a call to see how you’re getting on.” Grace today holds the promise of grace tomorrow.

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