A friend of ours was a gifted speaker with a bottomless well of humor. Quick-witted and fluent with words, he loved to speak. We loved to listen. It was delightful to know him.

But a stroke struck. He was left with only traces of the gifts he had known. Rehabilitation was long and arduous and limited in its results.

I visited this friend regularly. He eventually learned to speak again, but he had to force his words out. So his speech was loud—and delightful. It was full of grace. He didn’t like his losses, but he accepted his new reality with remarkable grace.

Every time I visited him, he would say, “The grace of God—wonderful though!” Why “wonderful though?” In spite of severe losses and crippling limitations, he knew he was blessed. God was gracious with him, caring for and loving him deeply. He accepted God’s grace, embracing it warmly. His life showed it. He bore the fruit of patience, kindness, goodness, love—even joy!

In him I saw the paradoxical truth that Paul discovered: “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. . . . For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Yes, our friend was now very weak, but in him I saw the power of Christ. In the Lord, he was strong!

The grace of God is indeed wonderful—and sufficient.