“And like a flood His mercy reigns. Unending love, amazing grace.”
A few days ago I was talking to my grandmother when she started to tell me about a son who had broken into his father’s home while he was gone and had stolen countless valuables and large sums of cash, and then some months later, asked his father to help him out financially so he could get back on his feet, and his father agreed to offer his assistance. I honestly could not believe it. I thought to myself, “Wow, the audacity of some people.” Then I turned to my grandmother and said, “Why would he do that? Why would he help someone who had done those terrible things to him and just blatantly disrespected him? I can’t believe his own child would do that to him, and now he’s willing to go out of his way to do nice things for him.”
I sat there for a few moments unable to wrap my mind around it, but then it hit me: Father, how many times have I failed You? How many times have I done something that others would consider unforgivable? How many times have I done something I knew was wrong, yet You were still there to pick me up? No matter how many times I have fallen short, You have still continued to bless me in ways that I don’t deserve. This, I realized, is what God’s grace looks like. No matter how far I seem to stray or what I have done, God continues to pick me up and set me back on my feet and remind me that I am His and I am loved. The very concept of God’s grace leaves me baffled and sometimes wondering, “why does He choose to show us love when we least deserve it?” And the only answer I can think of is because that is who He is. You see, grace has nothing to do with who we are or even what we’ve done, but rather who He is. Isn’t it amazing to think that God loves us so much that nothing in this world could ever separate us from that love or that could keep him from giving us grace?
The thing about grace though is that God doesn’t want it to cease just once we’ve received it- He wants us to show it to others as well, even those who have hurt us and left us wounded- correction: especially those who have hurt us and left us wounded. Because those are the people who need it the most. But when someone does us wrong, it’s so much more convenient for us to just give excuses as to why we shouldn’t, “You don’t understand how bad they hurt me”, “they don’t deserve my forgiveness”, etc. Yes, while all of this may be true, stop and reflect for a moment how we as humans do things that are unpleasing to God and how we are very undeserving of His forgiveness, yet those insignificant reasons never stop Him. Showing grace to others is a choice, and sometimes, (okay, a lot of times) a very tough one as well, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to do so. Seeing how much God loves us and gives grace where He doesn’t have to should inspire us all to show a Christlike love, especially to those who we feel least deserve it. As Christians, we should not only be receptive of grace, but willing to show it as well.
After all, what would Jesus do?
