Lenten Devotional by Beth Young
April 2, 2017
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound!”
“…Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—” (Luke 7:47)
We had lots of children in our neighborhood in Blacksburg, Virginia, and we spent all day outside playing together, regardless of age. After supper in the summertime, my father would pile everyone in the station wagon and take us all to get Slurpee’s at 7/11.
My family had daily evening worship services, all four children and my parents, both ministers. My mother’s family started this tradition and my parents still have a daily worship ritual. For a time in Blacksburg, we had neighborhood worship services and the kids from the houses on Valley View Drive would gather on our front steps. Sometimes there were as many as a dozen kids, from the 7 houses on our street. The Right Reverend Phil Young would share Bible stories and we would sing, sing songs that I have been singing my whole life. I could see from the faces of the neighborhood children that singing was not part of their childhood, and certainly not the daily outbursts of song that occurred at our house. For some of them, this was the only exposure to religion they had ever had, and I could see that in the amazement in their faces at the joy that my father expressed about our Lord Jesus and the fun that we had praising God. Most of them came over every night to participate, without being told it was time, happy to be a part of the Young’s worship service. I imagine that some of them remember the most important tenant of the worship services: that through God’s love, we are forgiven.
This is the most wonderful gift that my parents shared with me, and is the basis of their faith, the knowledge that we are forgiven. No matter what we have done, what our sins are, God forgives us. God sent Jesus as a sign of God’s love, and that allows us to forgive ourselves and forgive others. To know that being human is God’s plan and God’s grace is here for all humanity, no matter one’s race or creed. Amazing grace, to have God’s love and to be able to share it worldwide, that we are forgiven.