{"id":706,"date":"2007-12-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-11T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2007\/12\/saving-grace-what-would-it-tak.html"},"modified":"2007-12-11T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-11T09:00:00","slug":"saving-grace-what-would-it-tak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/12\/saving-grace-what-would-it-tak.html","title":{"rendered":"Saving Grace: What Would It Take?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"revised%20grace.jpg\"
\nOnce again the producers of \u201cSaving Grace,\u201d<\/a> have been eavesdropping on our conversation over here at Beyond Blue.<\/a>
\nThey\u2019ve taken Larry Parker and made him into Grace (Holly Hunter), and reader Babs is the angel Earl (Leon Rippy).
\nJust kidding, Larry and Babs. But seriously, folks, read some of the banter on the message board of Larry Parker\u2019s post \u201cWrestling With G_d,\u201d<\/a> and then go download last night\u2019s episode (I just figured out how to do that with iTunes! So cool!) and you\u2019ll see what I mean.
\nYesterday\u2019s \u201cSaving Grace\u201d could be summarized by these four words: \u201cWhat would it take?\u201d (To believe.)
\nAs a good Catholic you got to love the opening scene where Grace is sewing together a costume of some saint (sorry I forget) for her nephew and they are talking about how this saint died for his faith, blah blah blah \u2026 Grace squirts him with ketchup (as blood), and then she hops in the shower (after, of course, flashing her older neighbor, a favorite pastime of hers).<\/p>\n


\nThe doorbell rings and it\u2019s the nephew of the neighbor she just flashed (she flashed them both, actually, this time). He\u2019s an atheist. And an astrology buff.
\nThe neighbor\u2019s nephew is explaining to Grace’s nephew all the different constellations, how the Greeks mapped out the stars more than two millennia ago, but the little guy keeps on interrupting and saying things like, \u201cYeah, but it all started with God.” \u2026 Or “Yeah, but only God REALLY knows.\u201d
\nGrace, the agnostic, just smiles and nods (she\u2019s his Godmother after all!), enjoying the simple, blind faith of her little nephew.
\nIn a later scene, Earl sits down next to the atheist at a bar and starts quizzing him about astrology. They fire away at each other, back and forth \u2026 why God exists, why he doesn\u2019t exist, etc. Then Earl turns to the guy and says, \u201cWhat would it take for you to believe?\u201d
\nI love that. Because it really does get down to that one question, doesn\u2019t it? What would it take for us to believe? A mini-miracle? A big miracle? A village of people wearing the stigmata?
\nLarry, you had a lot of valid points in your post \u201cWrestling With G_d\u201d<\/a> and in your comments to Babs, but I really love what Babs said when she wrote this:<\/p>\n

If I think only of the places where I \u201cperceive\u201d God\u2019s absence, then I\u2019ll miss the places He is, like the friend who seeing two little carved figures in a shop on Saturday, bought and gave them to me because they reminded her of me. If I ask where is God in my joblessness, and it is a valid question I think, but stay only there, then I miss the blessings of friendship demonstrated to me these past months\u2014friendships I never knew I had. God is a God of relationship. It is a theme that runs throughout Scriptures.
\nA belief in God that does not involve struggle and questioning, hardly seems like a relationship worth having. Jacob\u2019s struggle with the angel brought a blessing, but left him marked for life. His wrestling lasted a night. He didn\u2019t even know at the time who he was wrestling with. Couldn\u2019t that be a metaphor for the darkness in which we continue to wrestle and be engaged with the Creator?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It goes back to the theme of yesterday\u2019s blog, \u201cOn Regaining Innocence,\u201d which shows you, once again, the producers do own a lectionary and are writing their scripts to fit with Sunday\u2019s readings in Advent. <\/a>
\nGrace\u2019s nephew is the only one with the gift of innocence, even though his mom (Grace\u2019s sister) died in the Oklahoma City bombings. The wrestling with God got so tiresome for the neighbor\u2019s nephew, that he sought answers in astrology. Because science is dependable and consistent.
\nGrace struts around in that in-between land, mostly doubt and cynicism. But a hair of hope buried in heart, which surfaces when she holds the hand of her Godson. That\u2019s why Earl\u2019s there . . . to try to rekindle the faith of her early years.
\nIf she’s smart, she’ll listen to her best friend, Rhetta (Laura San Giacomo), who said this to Grace in the first episode when Grace asked her why she believed in miracles: “I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know everything about God and that God can help you. He can help you get your sh*t together.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again the producers of \u201cSaving Grace,\u201d have been eavesdropping on our conversation over here at Beyond Blue. They\u2019ve taken Larry Parker and made him into Grace (Holly Hunter), and reader Babs is the angel Earl (Leon Rippy). Just kidding, Larry and Babs. But seriously, folks, read some of the banter on the message board…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration-and-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nSaving Grace: What Would It Take? - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/12\/saving-grace-what-would-it-tak.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saving Grace: What Would It Take? - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once again the producers of \u201cSaving Grace,\u201d have been eavesdropping on our conversation over here at Beyond Blue. 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