Grace to You and Me

History

Many years ago, a member of a Sunday School class I was in asked (no doubt half-jokingly), if the saying ‘God helps those who help themselves’ is in the Bible? We laughed, but the basic idea nagged at me for a long time. Later, when I decided to address it as a kind of rhetorical question, I proposed the answer: Grace! The cello part was written by our brilliant composer-on-retainer, Noah.

Lyrics

God helps those who help themselves and those who can barely try

Those with The Book of Common Prayer and those who can only cry

From cathedral hall majestic to the alley cold and bleak

God helps those who seek

God sees those in the limelight warm and those in the shadows cold

The light of Blessed Countenance falls on young and old

There is One for whom the midnight is as bright as noon of day

And He will light our way

(chorus) We bring no offering save our weakness only our need to be free

The wonder of His grace is that the pure will see His face

With grace to you and me, ‘cause God loves you and me

God loves all the trusting souls and those with doubting minds

Those who would blindly leap to faith and those with no faith to find

From the seeker to the skeptic and everyone between

God’s truth can be seen

There are those who have heard but have turned away and those who are longing still

Precious ones have been led astray and taught to hate and kill

But there’s a light that pierces darkness and a power that breaks the chains

And Jesus is His name

The voice that called the stars to be is the same voice calling you and me

And the love revealed at Calvary is God’s amazing grace to you and me

God calls us to give ourselves, to be His eyes and hands and feet

To be our brother’s keeper around the world and across the street

And to witness to the mercy and the love that set us free

So all the world will see

(chorus)

Yes it’s grace to you and me