Pastoral Letter: Prevenient Grace in a Season of Gratitude
I once heard someone say that meeting a single person is like encountering an entire universe. Each life holds depth and wonder—how a person enters this world, how joy and sorrow mark their steps, how God works within them in ways we rarely see at first glance. Perhaps this is why the moments we share before our Creator—in worship, in prayer, in conversations that open our hearts—feel so sacred to me.
In my short time at SUM, I have already witnessed grace moving ahead of us, opening doors and preparing hearts long before anyone takes a step. The Gospel speaks of the “true Light, which enlightens everyone” (John 1:9, NRSV). That Light shines before we notice it, before we understand it, even before we desire it.
Wesley called this prevenient grace—the love of God that seeks us first. And in the United Methodist tradition, we continue to affirm that grace precedes anything we do, choose, or accomplish. God is always the One who begins.
I see this grace each time someone quietly enters our sanctuary for the first time. I see it when a visitor shares a longing to walk this journey of faith with our community. I see it when someone returns after years away, carrying stories even they cannot yet name. In those moments, Jesus’ words rise gently in my mind: “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me” (John 6:44). We do not generate our own way to God—God draws us before we know what is happening.
I see grace in the breaking open of old wounds as we read Scripture together, in the gratitude of parents bringing their child for baptism, and in the earnest questions of our youth as they prepare for confirmation. These moments remind me of the promise in Romans: “While we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, NRSV). God does not wait for us to be ready. God loves first.
I see grace at life’s final threshold, too—when a beloved member of our church is gathered into God’s eternal care. The psalmist’s prayer becomes my own: “Your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast” (Psalm 139:10). God goes before us in our first breath and our last.
And I see grace in the unexplainable tears that come during a hymn or prayer, in the peace that settles quietly during worship, in those moments when something hidden within us finally loosens its grip. “We love because God first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Every tender movement of the heart is a response to a love already at work.
To be part of SUM is to witness these moments again and again—more moments than a single letter could ever contain. If I tried to name them all, the list would keep growing, not because we are doing something remarkable, but because God is continually shaping us as a people and preparing paths we could never prepare for ourselves.
Faith, then, is never something we start. It is God’s work before it becomes our response—God initiating, God inviting, God drawing us into life. Our part is simply to walk the gracious path already opened before us, not to earn grace but to live in gratitude for it.
As we enter the season of Thanksgiving, we are invited to remember the quiet and steady ways God has carried us through this past year—and through every season of our lives. Thanksgiving is more than a sentiment; it is the practice of letting grace turn into generosity, and generosity become a blessing for our neighbors.
My prayer is that gratitude will deepen in your life, and that God will open meaningful ways for your gratitude to flow outward.
I warmly invite you to worship this Sunday. It would be a joy to gather with you as we give thanks to the God who comes to us first, who prepares what we need even before we ask, and who leads us step by step into the light.
May we worship together, and may we walk the gracious way that God has already prepared for us.
In Christ,
Pastor DH