Amber Alert!  When you hear a news reporter say these two words, a red light flashes in your brain, and your attention is immediately focused on the plight of a missing child.

The “Amber” in the “Alert” is as well-known as it is unknown.  What you may know is that Amber Hageman is the namesake of this alert.  She was the 9 year old girl who was kidnapped and murdered in 1996.  He murder shocked the small Texas community where she lived, and the town responded by creating an emergency bulletin system that was eventually adopted nationwide as the Amber Alert.

What you may not know is that AMBER is an acronym meaning “America’s Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response.”  The tragic death of Amber gave birth to a system that has helped multiple children over the past 19 years.

There are times that we use words without full knowledge of their meaning.  The same is true with acronyms like the Amber Alert.

This is also the case with GRACE.  While it is an often used and well-known expression within Christianity, do you know all there is to know about it?  Let me define it this way:

• G-od’s
• R-iches
• At
• C-hrist’s
• E-xpense

Grace is the act of God by which He gives you something that you do not deserve.  Mercy is when God does not give you what you do deserve.

Here’s a good news bulletin to consider:  Grace, mercy, and peace shall be with us, from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love (2 John 1:3).