Jolly Beggars

I came across this quote while I was organizing the office today. I have a bad habit of writing things down and then misplacing them! Or having a little help misplacing them! Ha!
It is from the book "What's So Amazing About Grace" by Philip Yancey. In it he quotes CS Lewis. Anyways, I thought I would share.

As a child, I put on my best behavior on Sunday mornings, dressing up for God and for the Christians around me. It never occured to me that church was a place to be honest. Now, though, as I seek to look at the world through the lens of grace, I realize that imperfection is the prerequisite for grace. Light only gets in through the cracks.
My pride still tempts me to put on the best front, to clean up appearances. "It is easy to acknowledge," said CS Lewis, "but almost impossible to realize for long, that we are mirrors whose brightness, if we are bright, is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us. Surely we must have a little-however little-native luminosity? Surely we can't be quite creatures."
He goes on, "Grace substitutes a full, childlike and delighted acceptance of our Need; a joy in total dependence. We become jolly beggars."
We creatures, we jolly beggars, give glory to God by our dependence. Our wounds and defects are the very fissures through which grace might pass.
It is our human destiny on earth to be imperfect, incomplete, weak, and mortal, and only by accepting that destiny can we escape the force of gravity and receive grace. Only then can we grow close to God.