Excerpt from Ephesians 2: 8-10

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."

Reflection by Donna Schaper

Oysters have a distinct terroir, which is a wonky wine term used to describe how place affects product.  A river, inlet, or bay imparts a unique flavor to each oyster.  Similarly, we are gifted by our origins.  I am still having a romance with the Hudson River, on whose banks I was born.

As Thoreau explained it: "It is vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves.  There is none such.  It is the bog in our brain and bowel, the primitive vigor of Nature in us."  We cannot undo our origins.  They come with us, in brain and bowel.  They are gifts.  If you are from a place, the place has marked you.

"The bird-lover in a wood at once distinguishes the twittering of different species, which to ordinary people sound the same," wrote Marcel Proust.

Some people understand the grace of place and origin.  Others imagine they "had to get out" or that they come "from nowhere."  What is most amazing about grace is that you can come from nowhere and be somebody.  Grace is not our own doing.  It is the doing of God, whose placement of us in creation not only affects our product but also finally is our product.  We taste good to God. God knows our twitter and knows it has more than a few lines to it.

Prayer

Let our terroir never terrify us.  No matter where we go, let us know our way home.  Amen.

About the Author Donna Schaper is Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church, New York, New York.

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