Grace

“Because things are the way they are, they will not stay the way they are.”  Bertolt Brecht

“Every sinner has a past, and every saint a future.”  Oscar Wilde

I came across these two quotes recently and appreciated the way they coalesced, or at least seemed to at that moment.  Past (the way things were), present (the way things are) and future (the way things will be) are distinct moments in time, and that grace is, if you will, the string that holds the three beads in the same loop.  I can (if clear-minded) most easily see, identify the work of grace when looking back to the past and seeing the intricate way in which God has put the pieces put together — though I admit to thinking at times I might have done it differently!.  I can look forward and hope for the presence of grace to, as Wilde puts it, transition me from “sinner to saint.”  But I live in a state of grace, and it occurs to me that understanding the presence of grace in the present is the toughest nut to crack, yet the one that yields the sweetest fruit.