Grace and Mardi Gras

Well today is Shrove Tuesday/Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Pancake Day depending on where you are and who you are. For those who don't know, in Roman Catholicism the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday (or the start of Lent) is the end of a festival - essentially you party before the fasting and deprtivation of Lent. The festivals generally start from 12th night (January 6th) and climax today. You are not to eat rich foods for Lent, so on the Tuesday before you would use up your butter and eggs and flour and make pancakes or other rich pastries - hence the Fat Tuesday or Pancake Day.

Learning all this when I looked it up on Wikipedia earlier just filled me with thanksgiving that the law of new life in Christ has set me free from the law of sin and death. I'm glad that God doesn't deal with me on a scale system - and that feasts must not be followed by fasts. I'm glad that I don't need to keep the feasts and fasts to make it into heaven. I'm so thankful for grace. Grace that says I'm a worthless sinner, chosen by God before the foundation of the world, to be redeemed by Him for no other reason than because He wants to.

But I'm also thankful for common grace. Common grace that gives us pancakes, and jazz music, parades, and magnolias, the French quarter, Creole and Cajun food, and even feasts and fasts to remind you of the blessings and mercies of God. All these things are good and come from a good Creator who gave ol'Satchmo that wonderful voice.

So, today I'm going to light my magnolia candles, I'm going to play my Louis Armstrong cd, I'm going to close my eyes and imagine I'm in the Big Easy, but I'm also going to pray for all those men and women who think God is judging them on a point system and have yet to meet His grace.