The Grace We Seek but Have Forgotten

Ms. Sohn is a United Methodist minister and writer.

“Have you heard of the word ‘grace’?” I gently asked my son’s 10-year-old neighborhood friend.

She knows I’m a minister but not what a minister does. Maybe she sensed my pastoral-care energy because she often stepped away from playing Minecraft or riding scooters to share her latest troubles. This most recent time, she told me she was going to stop being friends with a classmate who cheated at handball.

Beyond the occasional Christmas or Easter service, her family didn’t go to church. And, come to think of it, nor did many of our other friends........

© The New York Times