If it were up to us, we’d save the world with money—lots of money—distributed to give each person food to eat and shelter from the storms.

 

If it were up to us, we’d save the world through education—teaching children how to read, filling schools and universities—for knowledge has advantages.

 

If it were up to us, we’d save the world by banning war—undoing arsenals, dissolving armies, teaching skills of compromise.

 

All these are good: we’ve tried them all. Yet still we wrestle—endlessly—with poverty, injustice, and the violence they breed. The vast inequities of life defy our grandest visions.

 

God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways” (Isa 55:8). He who knows us best and loves us most will save the world His way.

 

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). “God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Rom 5:8).

Grace is God’s answer to our broken, messed-up world, for grace addresses all that causes hunger, homelessness and war. God heals the heart, and then, in turn, our minds, our bodies, and communities.

 

Begin with grace, and watch the world change. And stay in it. -Bill Knott