Every Breath is Grace

Sunday during church, the presence of the Holy Spirit was heavy. As we sang “Holy Ground,” a phrase came into my mind: “Every Breath is Grace.” I thought, “Oh, that’s a deep phrase. I will write it down after the song is over.” But God wouldn’t allow that. The phrase grew and grew until I couldn’t even concentrate on the song anymore. So I sat down, opened up Evernote on my iPad, and started writing. And this is what happened.

“Every Breath is Grace”
by Amy Lutes

How can I measure
all the grace you have given to me?
How you have saturated my life with grace
beyond measure,
beyond counting!

If every breath is grace,
can I measure grace by
pounds per square inch?

Can I measure grace by
how many times
my lungs have filled with air?

Can I measure grace by
the oxygen content in every cell?

Can I measure grace by
how many times you have rescued me
from close calls,
from bad decisions,
from my own trembling heart?

Your grace is immeasurable.
How can we know it fully?
It is all around us like air,
it fills us like breath.

Like your breath
breathed into Adam’s lungs
that you formed with your own hands.

Like your breath
that you inhaled as a baby on Mary’s breast,
when you cried for the first time in human flesh.

Like your breath
that you exhaled on the cross,
when you said It Is Finished,
and you poured out your grace once again
upon all of humanity.

Like your breath
that you breathed over the apostles,
your fiery breath that filled them with
the fire of your Spirit,
your breath that gave them new life.

Every breath is grace
because every breath we take is still
that first breath you breathed into us
at the dawn of the universe.
There has never been a time when
you have not breathed
into us,
onto us,
all around us.

Every breath is grace.

I feverishly wrote this down in less than 10 minutes during the church service. This is one of the reasons why I try to always make sure that I credit God with whatever I have written; this is not normal, it usually doesn’t happen like this. But sometimes there are moments when we have no option but to open ourselves up to be a vessel for the Holy Spirit to speak (or write) through.

What are some times that you have recognized the beautiful, immeasurable grace of God going before you, rescuing you, calling you closer? If you feel led, please leave a comment and share about how God’s grace has shown up in your life!