Word #1: Saved

Of all the words I knew were in the jar and words I didn't want early on, this one takes the cake. 

Maybe because "saved" makes me think of "salvation" which is one of those Christian terms that likes to be thrown around often.

 Especially if you live in the Bible Belt. 

And go to your grandparent's mega-Baptist church as a kid where they ask you when you were "saved". 

And you have no idea what in the world they are talking about. 

And then you feel ostracized from the group of THIRD graders the rest of the week while at camp.

(Not that that ever happened to me...)

But to answer the prompt: 

beauty in...

...saved...

...salvation...

...being safe...

...saving...

I'm not sure where to even begin.  I guess one thought is that there is something reassuring in being saved. And saving, in this context, doesn't have to be this 

HUGETHEOLOGICALMYSTERYDEBATE 

for us.  

Maybe you are saved, literally, by someone grabbing your arm before you walk into a street of cars because you were looking at your cell phone wishing that one text you've been waiting on would just come. 

That's beautiful; you're alive.

This web page I'm on even gives me the option for being saved! 

Fancy that.

That's beautiful; there's no chance for these words to be lost while my internet is at work.

Or maybe you have saved someone else; you've politely pointed out that their life may be going in a direction that doesn't bode well and putting down the bottle or ending that unhealthy relationship may indeed be a decent idea. 

That's beautiful; you've looked beyond yourself and helped someone else.  And maybe there might even be a memoir or Lifetime movie in the works. Or at least a new lease on life. 

For whatever you are saved from, or saving someone from, I guess as a seminarian, I can't help but think about the salvation aspect of "saved".  Especially in this season of Lent. 

There is this verse that comes to mind...from Ephesians 2:8

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

There is most definitely beauty in that gift from God. The keyword for me there: GIFT.  

It's free. As Ephesians says, it's because our God is "rich in mercy".

So what do you think about "saved"?

⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us ⁵ even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— ⁹ not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

- Ephesians 2:4-9