Grace

Yesterday, we were walking along one of our favourite stretches of coast. To our right, the grass gives way to a shelf of rock that gently slopes down to the sea. When the sea is at all rough, the surf comes thundering into the rocky shore. The sound is unique – a great, never-ending rumble. As you watch, you see each breaking wave swoosh up the rock and die away, only to be replaced by the next – and the next – and the next. It’s a never-ending demonstration of natural power.

It made me think of today’s scripture. A never-ending supply of grace. Like the waves, as soon as some of God’s grace to us has been, so to speak, used up, there is more. And, as soon as one situation has been dealt with by God’s grace, there’s always another wave on its way for the next one. It’s inexhaustible – grace upon grace.

As we watched wave after wave crashing on to the rocky shore and listened to the rumble of their sound, God was reminding me about something else: the power of His grace.

The rock where we were walking is among the hardest on the planet, dolerite. And yet the sea has worn it down into the sloping shelf we were looking at and, in places, smashed it into innumerable boulders. We could hear the power as we listened to the relentless roar of the surf. One wave would never have much impact on the rock. But wave after wave – that’s different.

Whatever the need, God’s grace always comes with enough power to meet the need. It’s there for everyone who is willing to receive it – note how John says, ‘we have all received’. And it will never run out because it comes from ‘His fullness’, His inexhaustible supplies.