God’s Multicolored Grace
Hello and welcome! First, I just want to say thank you for visiting, and I hope you enjoy your time here. Second, I want to provide a bit of explanation as to how the blog name (and the blog itself) came about.
Last year I was going through a difficult time. To give the abbreviated version, I was sick with strep throat three times in less than five months, and my husband had a recurring health issue which required a surgery that left him incapacitated for weeks. This meant that I had to be the primary parent and caregiver to my husband, even though I was sick myself. As if all of this wasn’t enough, my coworker was laid off, resulting in increased stress at work.
Then, our youngest daughter had what they ultimately diagnosed as a febrile seizure. It was something I had never experienced in my life, and it was my scariest parenting moment to date—I was home alone with our kids, I had no idea what was happening, and I was convinced this was the end of my sweet girl as I knew her. (She is completely fine now, thank God!)
It seemed like the hits just kept coming. Every time I thought maybe I was reaching the end of my “season of suffering”, another sucker punch came and knocked me right back down. I was quickly reaching the end of my ability to cope.
I had spent most of my summer in the book of I Peter (a book that talks a lot about suffering!) and, as I was studying one morning, something caught my eye. I Peter 1:6 says: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.” The word “various” in this verse derives from the Greek word “poikilos”, which translates to “various; of different colors; diverse.” Later, in I Peter 4:10, the author alludes to “the manifold grace of God”. The word “manifold” in this verse also derives from the Greek word “poikilos”.
And it hit me: God’s diverse, many-colored grace (His kindness, His blessing) is sufficient for every one of our diverse, many-colored trials, from the smallest frustration to the deepest heartache. His grace covers them all. He may not make our problems go away (in fact He probably won’t, at least not right away!), but we can rest secure, knowing that He sees our troubles and that He will provide us with exactly the right amount of grace we need to pass through them with our spirits unscathed.
So, now you know the source of the blog name “Multicolored Grace”—it’s a reference to the grace given to all of us by our Heavenly Father to face all of the problems we encounter on a day-to-day basis. These problems include everything from the merely frustrating, such as a cranky child or a car that won’t start, to devastating issues such a crushing health diagnosis or the death of someone precious to us.