Grace

 I am reminded of a graphic picture sketched by a young man grappling with the truth.  It showed a long line of people with happy faces.  They were waiting on their turn for an activity that looks like the ultimate in fun.  The activity is at the edge of a drop-off and near the edge reads a sign: “The Fall of Fun: Try it!”  There are people jumping off as though they are going into a swimming pool by dives, cannonballs, etc.  Everyone looks happy, eager, and controlled by their desire for pleasure.  However, what the viewer sees is quite another story.  The bottom is covered with ugly spikes of varying heights.  Many have already landed and the gruesome sight sheds new light on the line of happy faces. 

I’m not sure exactly where the artist was spiritually when he sketched the unsettling scene:  anger at sin or anger at God.  But for me, as I thought on it this morning, I found myself berating the unbeliever for such stupidity:  “observe, think, don’t be so sure of your philosophy.”   Piously, I made myself sick at their unbelief and then the thought hit hard:  “By grace you have been saved.”  Why am I so slow to remember this?  (It’s not the first time!)  I WAS in the line of happy, eager people with their mind bent on pleasure.  God, in HIS GRACE and MERCY, snatched me from the line before it was too late.

Praise His holy name!!  It is “grace that has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.”