(UNDATED) In a recent episode of the superb TNT series, “Saving Grace,” the character Father Johnny Hanadarko (Tom Irwin), the brother of anti-heroine Grace Hanadarko (Holly Hunter), makes a revealing confession about his faith:

“When I was a kid, I tried to figure out how God could be everywhere at once. I’d think of the most unlikely places — in my father’s Scotch, in my sister’s bra. God was this fun, fun mystery. I think I’ve lost that. These days I spend my time worried if the air conditioner is going to work on Sunday so that Mrs. Bernardi doesn’t hunt me down for the 89th time.”

I am a longtime and rabid fan of “Saving Grace,” which concluded its third and next-to-last season on Tuesday (Aug. 18). Much about the series’ edgy exploration of faith, doubt, God, religion and relationships often gives me spiritual meat to gnaw on.

Father Johnny’s monologue was a full meal.

When you grow up with religion and faith, as Father Johnny has, sometimes the mysteries of God lose their, well, mystery. The wonder leaves the room, replaced by intellectualism and the temporal distractions of adult life.

Rather than some kind of indictment of Catholicism, the priesthood in particular or organized religion in general, Father Johnny’s admission was a clarion call to seek the mystery, the face of God; to enliven faith by living it.

On the eve of this season’s finale, I chatted with “Saving Grace” creator Nancy Miller, herself a woman of deep and complex faith, a self-proclaimed “practicing Catholic” whom her publicist describes (quite accurately) as “a gutsy, take-no prisoners broad.”

In three seasons, Grace, a rowdy Oklahoma City homicide detective, has slogged through her own childhood abuse at the hands of a pedophile priest, alcohol addiction, torrid (and often graphically depicted) love affairs, and all manner of life (and faith)-shaking chaos and destruction.

Still, Grace’s biggest struggle has been with God, or more accurately, with a last-chance angel named Earl (Leon Rippy) sent to help Grace — and those she loves — find healing. Grace and Earl wrestle weekly over God’s will for both of them.

Faith can be terribly complicated, and it’s a topic Miller handles with equal parts tenderness and humor.

“I had a great conversation with a friend of mine who is a priest, about difficult people in the parish and how he deals with them and how hard it is for him,” Miller said. “A priest has to be a social worker, a psychiatrist, a theologian — they’re like cops, they wear so many different hats. And I think Johnny has forgotten the fun of God, forgotten the joy, the childlike joy of this wonder that God has placed before us, not only in other people but in a tree, in coffee grounds on the floor. If he would only look at things differently, he might see something different.

“So that’s sort of how we’re thinking of Johnny these days; he has dedicated his life to God and yet his messed up sister gets the angel? It’s got to be so confusing to him.”

Even Earl has showed his more human(ish) side this season, questioning God (in the form of a silent dog with an extra-long tongue) and God’s plan for Grace.

“We wanted to make it clear that Earl is not God,” Miller explained. “He is an angel and he is the messenger. And there are some messages that God does not give him, so he is in the dark.”

So what happens next?

“God is a mystery. What he wants sometimes for us is a mystery, and all we have to go on is faith,” Miller said. “If you don’t have faith you’re gonna get off path, and even with faith, you still might get off path. … Just because you believe in God all your problems aren’t solved, all the pain isn’t taken away and (God) never promised us that.

“I like to keep the show messy because I just think we’re messy — life is messy and human beings are just messy.”

(Cathleen Falsani is the author of “Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace” and the upcoming “The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers.”)