Amazing Grace

The word 'grace' has a great many definitions and to only write about one of these definitions would do a great injustice to the word, yet attempting to delve into all of them would mean that I would be writing all night and you would stop reading 10 sentences from here. So I will focus my energies on a definition that has become one of my personal favorites.

It is not the one that deals with the Grace and Mercy of God. Although that is truly a mind blowing concept. To think that there is an all knowing, all powerful God that wants to forgive my worst sins because He loves me and desperately wants to be with me is almost too much for me to wrap my mind around. Instead I will zero in on the definition of grace that comes from Classical Mythology.

In early Titan Mythology the word Graces was used as a collective moniker for the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome. These three women, Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia, were known as the goddesses of beauty and charity. Personally I don't really care who the early Greeks and Romans chose to worship for beauty, grace, or charity. The interesting aspect of this to me lies more within the name of the Graces mother.

Eurynome is often pronounced (or mispronounced, depending on how you view it) as 'your enemy'. Whether or not this is the correct pronunciation may never be known, however, if this is correct then I am most definitely in love with the symbolism that comes from Zeus (The main god and for the purposes of this argument, we will just refer to him as god) and Eurynome ("Your Enemy") having three daughters that were the symbols of grace, charity and beauty.

Typically when we think of the results of a god and an enemy coming together we do not think of beauty or grace. We tend to think of the ravages of war, for surely any encounter that a god would have with an enemy would result in a terrible battle with massive levels of damage. In this case though, the result was the creation of three beings that symbolized pure beauty. Two forces that would appear to be at odds with each other managed to produce a form of grace that that was so perfect it enticed people to want to worship it.

If this concept could have a parallel in our current reality I can only imagine what it would look like. I have no way of finding three perfect examples of grace walking amongst us, however, I can take notice of all of the tiny acts of grace and every minute display of beauty that I encounter every single day. When it would seem that humanity has slipped so far into a pit of sin and ugliness that there is no hope left, that is when I am able to see most clearly the beauty that still lives within us.

To put it simply. When God, who lives within us, meets our enemy Satan, through his presence in our world, it is then that we are able to see the purest Grace possible if we allow God to reach through the darkness to reach the lost. It is then that we are truly able to see the best of all of the Graces....Amazing Grace.