Revolutionary Grace

We hit a bit of a snag in our efforts to gather information for my son's paper on Espionage during the Revolutionary War. In all of our zealous research, we had not collected information from one of the required resources: a newspaper. Yup, that's right. He is required to find an article from a daily/weekly news publication that discusses events that occurred over 200 years ago!

Thank goodness we celebrate Independence Day! I found an article - from a newspaper - that discussed historic places from the time of the Revolutionary War. I knew he could grab a quote or two from an article like that! One hitch: to print the article, I would have to PAY. The cheapest rate I could find was a 1 week "trial" membership to the newspaper archives for $24.95. For ONE article? They have GOT to be kidding, right?

Instead, I took the information I could find for free - the name of the paper, publication date and location of the article in the newspaper - and hopped on down to my local public library. I love that place! As it turned out, our local library branch did not have a hard copy of that article, but they did subscribe to a newspaper research archive online. Guess what? The librarian found the article for me, printed it and placed it in my grateful hands. No charge. After I thanked her for all her help she said, "You are welcome! Don't you just love the library?!" I told her that I did, indeed!

On the way home, I realized what a sweet picture of God's grace I had just experienced. There was something I needed and that item came at a price. I received the object of my desire because someone else made the effort and paid the price on my behalf (Yes, I know our tax dollars pay for the libraries! Work with me here!!). I especially loved the joy the librarian showed at being able to give me what I desired. Seriously, she was happier than I was!

I'm not sure if I have ever considered how much God loves to bestow Grace upon us. I know He blesses us with Grace because he loves us, but I didn't think much about the possibility that he loves the act of bestowing His Grace to us. Does that make sense? I have a picture in my mind of God getting a big handful of Grace and placing it in my hands, me thanking Him and God replying, "You are welcome! Don't you just love Me?"

Father, I do, INDEED!!