By Seth Smith
“Grace isn’t just a divine gift—it’s a way of life. It shapes how we see the world, how we treat each other, and how we walk through both forgiveness and truth. This poem reflects not only on the grace given by God, but the grace we are called to extend to one another—believer or not.”
The Beauty of Grace
Grace is the light in the merciless storm,
A balm where judgment would rather perform.
Not earned, not bought, not claimed by might—
It falls like dew in the hush of night.
Grace is the whisper when wrath would shout,
A reach of love when we cast someone out.
It stands in the place where offense should divide,
And offers a seat to the soul pushed aside.
The grace of God, so boundless, so wide,
Flowed from the cross where our Savior died.
But grace does not end in that crimson flood—
It flows through His people, His hands, His blood.
It’s shown in the silence that listens with care,
In choosing to pray when it’s easier to glare.
It bends to the fallen, lifts up the low,
And plants seeds of peace where no mercy would grow.
Grace meets the sinner without condescension,
Corrects in love, not in cruel contention.
It kneels with the doubter, it walks with the weak,
And answers with kindness when vengeance would speak.
To love the unlovely, to pardon the wrong,
To carry the wounded when the journey is long—
This is the grace we are called to display,
Not just on the Sabbath, but each common day.
So let us be vessels of mercy and light,
Forgiving in shadow, embracing in spite.
For we, too, were lost, and stained, and awry—
There but for the grace of God go I.
Scripture Reflection
- “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8, ESV)¹
- “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32, ESV)²
- “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” (Colossians 4:6, ESV)³
Footnotes (Turabian Style)
- Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), Eph. 2:8.
- Ibid., Eph. 4:32.
- Ibid., Col. 4:6.
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