Two things I discovered this morning...

1 Most of my lovely peeps do not know the title song of this post.  So, if they happen to read this, here is:

2 Most of my lovely people did not know the story of Mephibosheth (2 Samuel, various) so I sent them off to read it for their homework.  So, big thanks to the LHBC, JBC and 1st D GB for telling this important story (I've known it since it was used in the last of those mentioned as a story about children in the Bible for the 'Splorers)

And this pretty amazing grace is...

unexpected

unchosen/unrequested

undeserved

unstinting

and

which is my answer to a comment after the service

unlimited/unbounded

One illustration I forgot to use was of grace in Christian theology as being what my mission tutor called cat-hold grace rather than monkey-hold grace.  The mother cat sees her kitten in peril, reaches down and picks it up, then runs to safety; the baby monkey senses danger and clambers onto the back of its mother, hoping for safety.  Eastern religions, he asserted, hold to the idea of monkey-hold grace (God is grace, we mst seek God) and Christianity has a a prevenient God who looks out for us.  The origin of this image is lost in time, my then tutor claimed he'd been taught it by a retired Methodist minister I knew and worked with in Dibley, and that they'd worked together in the Church of South India.  As a cat lover of course, I prefer God to be cat-like than ape-like!