She smiled at me as she walked past, a tiny little girl holding on to her mom with one hand and stuffing animal crackers into her mouth with the other. I smiled back; what a cutie! Suddenly, she dropped her mother’s hand and came running back to me. Wordlessly, she held out an animal cracker. I took it from her grubby hand and popped it into my mouth. We shared another smile, she ran back to her mom, and as quickly as that, our brief exchange was over.

I was surprised over the next several hours to find myself breaking into a joyous grin as I recalled the little girl’s impulsive act of kindness. Her simple “animal cracker grace" completely changed the outlook of my day!

Grace. It’s a small word with monumental implications, the most important of them being the grace of God that saves us from eternal condemnation. But isn’t it a bit sacrilegious to compare grace to an animal cracker?

I don’t think so. Cursory research reveals that the word grace appears around 150 times in the Bible, give or take a few depending on the translation. Many of these occurrences do speak of God’s saving grace, but it’s also interesting that Paul bestows grace upon his readers in the salutation and closing of every single letter that he wrote. So is grace something that we can give to others?

Yes! It's thought-provoking to note that in passages describing spiritual gifts, the words “gifts” and “grace” both come from the Greek root word charis. When Peter directed his readers to use their gifts to serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace, in effect he was telling them, and us, to take the grace that God has given to us and share it with others. So when we offer words of encouragement or counsel, open up our guest room, cook a meal, or clean someone’s house, we’re sharing God’s grace. When a tiny girl reaches into her stash and offers a stranger an animal cracker, she’s sharing God’s grace.

So, sister, what are we waiting for? Let’s get out there and share some animal cracker grace today!