Key Verse: “the Angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, You have found favor with God”
I write these words one day following the funeral service and burial of my brother, Larry. He was a powerful preacher of the gospel of God’s grace and a consummate churchman.
He and I talked frequently during the past few years about how we wanted to be remembered when, at the end of our earthly existence, we have nothing by memories to look back upon and nothing but death of our bodies before us. Both of us wanted to be remembered as holy men of God who found favor with God.
Larry and I never doubted that God “graced” us bountifully over the years in ways we could never comprehend. We were indeed, sinners saved by the amazing grace of God. What a profound thought. To grasp that we are the blessed, gifted, called and graced children of God was for us, overwhelming.
Even more humbling was the realization that God not only extended His grace to us to redeem, transform and empower us, but that He chose to extend and channel His grace through us as we reached out in His name to serve others.
He saw in us what we could not see in ourselves. He “found favor” in us when we could not find anything good in ourselves. What a theme and refrain for us to embrace and echo in our lives!
Read Luke 1:29-33
LeBron Fairbanks
December 20, 2010
