The cycle of grace—salvation, through Christ, for me—satisfied my theological need-to-know regarding my faith and future. I felt secure to investigate other aspects of grace. For instance, why did Paul begin many of his letters with the salutation, “Grace to you and peace?” On a more intriguing level, why did God promise grace—and not deliverance—in hard times? (I would prefer to have the former rather than the latter.)

What does the Bible mean when it refers to “the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?” Is this some sort of divine personality trait?

In pursuit of answers to these questions I felt I was growing in my understanding of grace; but in retrospect, I think I was intellectualizing rather than comprehending. Grace must be more than a concept or theological tenet.

While not able to articulate why, I felt grace had to be more than a cyclical philosophy of logic.

I have been working on a definition that has taken me into a new realm. I believe grace is God’s determined effort to share His heart with us.

It stands to reason, if this is God’s determination, the manifestation of grace’s reach must be as profound as the genius of God’s creativity. Therefore, God’s grace must be all around us. It must be pervasive throughout all of life. It must be inherent within every communication from God. It must be as near as our own thinking and as far reaching as our wildest imaginations. It must be simple enough to understand and profound enough to pursue for all of time and eternity. It must be what makes earth worms crawl and the universe keep expanding.

God’s determination must be behind the continuity of the atom’s nucleus and the black hole’s appetite.

This is grace in macro, but what about grace in micro? What about grace as my life? That’s next.