this is a very short chapter beginning on page 27 and going through page 35. He begins with a story. I have used this story in a sermon:
What is grace? “Nancy and I spent an unforgettable day in England with Phil and Margaret Holder. Margaret was born in China to missionary parents with China Inland Mission. In 1939, when Japan took control of Eastern China, thirteen-year-old Margaret was imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp. There she remained, separated from her parents, for six years.
Margaret told us stories about a godly man called ‘Uncle Eric.’ He tutored her and was deeply loved by all the children in the camp. We were amazed to discover that ‘Uncle Eric’ was Eric Liddell, ‘The Flying Scot,’ hero of the movie Chariots of Fire. Liddell shocked the world by refusing to run the one hundred meters in the 1924 Paris Olympics, a race he was favored to win. He withdrew because the qualifying heat was on a Sunday. Liddell won a gold medal—and broke a world record—in the four hundred meters, not his strongest event. Later he went as a missionary to China. When war broke out, he sent his pregnant wife and his daughters to safety. Imprisoned by the Japanese, he never saw his family in this world again. Suffering with a brain tumor, Eric Liddell died in 1945, shortly after his forty-third birthday.

Through fresh tears, Margaret told us, ‘It was a cold February day when Uncle Eric died.’
At times it seemed unbearable to be cut off from their homes and families. But Margaret spoke with delight of ‘care packages falling from the sky’—barrels of food and supplies dropped from American planes.

One day Margaret and the other children were lined up as usual to count off for roll call. Suddenly an American airplane flew low. They watched it circle and drop more of those wonderful food barrels. But as the barrels came near the ground, the captives realized something was different. Her eyes bright, Margaret told us, ‘This time the barrels had legs!’ the sky was full of American soldiers, parachuting down to rescue them.
Margaret and several hundred children rushed out of the camp, past Japanese guards who offered no resistance. Free for the first time in six years, they ran to the soldiers that were raining down everywhere. They threw themselves on their rescuers, hugging and kissing them. (pages 27-28)
The free gifts the Americans gave the children were grace. But Eric Liddell also lived with Truth. The Truth was in the Scriptures.
Did anything stand out to you in this chapter?
We see Grace and Truth in the parable of the Prodigal Son which can be found in Luke 15:11-32. I will be preaching on that passage this Sunday. My title will be “God as our Father, Full of Grace and Mercy.”
Have a great week!