Cascades of Grace

"Experiencing the present purely is being emptied and hollow; you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall.

....These are our few live seasons.  Let us live them as purely as we can."

- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

I love that picture—grace like holding a cup under a waterfall.  Dillard mostly means trying to hold onto the present, I think, but it fits the Biblical idea of grace, too.  It's not something you can catch and hold onto; put your hands around and keep in your fists.  Grace is supposed to flow through you: an enormous power that fills your smallness beyond measure only to pour out, sloshing and spilling all around you.  Experiencing grace for myself means I can't help but leave drips and puddles behind me and splashing a little on everyone I meet.

But alas...I think perhaps too few people keep themselves soaked in the waterfall all the time.  Great God, let me not be a dried-up Christian!

How amazing too that, though God could send His grace crashing through everyone and everything at once as He pleases, He sweetly allows us to carry about our dripping little cups in hopes that the small taste of His goodness and love might bring others to the waterfall in hopes of being drenched themselves.

Cascades of grace.  What a beautiful encouragement—I have an idea Annie Dillard hit the truth much more deeply than she probably realized!