students of jesus

You’ve already doing it, usually unaware. But now: take a breath. Breathe deep.

Again. This time feel the air circulate through your nose; feel your chest swell, and instead of expelling the air with force, allow it to find its way out.

The air we breathe reaches the smallest parts of our body--nothing is ignored. The air we breathe will clean our blood and strengthen every cell. The air we breathe is the grace of God.

The great sky is more than a home for the clouds--the heavens themselves reach down to us all. From around us to inside us, from our lungs to every part of our souls, his grace is reaching you and me. His grace surrounds us and flows through us. We cannot live for more than a moment without it.

The reality of grace is all around us: every breath a parable, every moment sustained by him. Sitting alone or on the subway, we can draw the lessons of Grace.

Ubiquitous grace: We have all received his grace. Sinner or saint, unconscious or aware, asleep or awake, we have received. We receive now. We will receive. His grace is for everyone, foe or friend.

Unlimited supply: We cannot use it all, even if we try. We cannot use all the air in the room, much less the sky. Great clouds of grace sweep over the face the earth, bringing wave after wave of our greatest, most basic need. What we most need we can never expend. Nor does he chide or limit, ration or withhold. It is his joy to give.

A parable of love: The schoolchild learns that as we breathe our body benefits and thrives: from our lungs to our blood, from the blood to the cells, airy grace first delivers what we crave and carries away our most toxic waste. His grace brings us his life, and carries away our death.

Grace for all, because all have need: He is as close as our need: blowing, waiting, filling, cleansing, bearing away all that is ill and returning again and again afresh in a joyful cycle of life. All this when we breathe, whether we know it or not.

But it is always there for us to experience, if we just breathe.