"Say grace." Those instructive words were often heard as our family gathered around the table in my boyhood home. Dad usually said grace. Sometimes, however, it was someone else who said grace. Every now and then my Dad would turn to someone else sitting at the table and ask him to "Say grace." So whether it was eggs and grits on the table or southern fried chicken with sweet potato casserole, someone always said grace.

I soon learned that all grace was not the same. There are different kinds of grace to be said. I was always glad when Uncle Rex visited and Dad would turn to him and say: "Say grace." I liked the way he said grace. When Uncle Rex said grace, it was always the same grace. When he said grace, we would all bow our heads and Uncle Rex would say, "Thank you Lord for these and all other blessings. Make us truly thankful. Amen." I liked the way he said grace. It was always the same and it was always short. When Uncle Rex said grace, it did not take long to get to the main business at hand.

Once in a while Dad looked across the table to my mother and said, "Say grace." Mother's grace was different from Uncle Rex's grace. I liked his grace, but I dreaded hearing Dad say to my mother: "Say grace." When she said grace I knew it would be a while before we got to the main business at hand. When my mother said grace, she thanked the Lord for her children and her warm home. She thanked God for the beautiful day, our health, our church and our food. Finally, when she was almost finished saying grace, she would thank God for His love and for His Son, Jesus. If I was not hungry before she started, I was certainly hungry by the time she finished saying grace.

There is a wonderful story about grace in the Bible. It's like a thirty second film clip in which there is both needed grace and surprising grace. This compact picture of grace in action is in the Gospel of John 8. The first eleven verses depict the scene. This story does not appear in the oldest and the best manuscripts of John's Gospel, but it is so true to the life of Jesus that it must have had its genesis in fact.

It may have been that this story of needed grace and surprising grace was so powerful and so often told that someone along the way was prompted by the Spirit to decide: "This just has to be included!" And so it was. And here it is. A quick clip about grace.

Before the cool morning gave way to the stifling mid-day heat, Jesus took His place at a familiar spot along the stone paved courtyard inside the Hebrews' sacred temple. Finding a place to sit, for all Jewish teachers sat, people quickly crowded around to hear what the Nazareth teacher had to say. Hardly before He could warm to His subject, mumbling splashed across the crowd before Him. Then came shouts. "Get out of the way!" someone bellowed. "Move!" another brayed as people jumped aside. "There now!" blurted a brawny looking fellow as he shoved a disheveled woman before Jesus. "Here she is! We caught her! We caught her in the very act! She is as guilty as sin!" shouted another.