If I could Paint

If I could paint, I would paint a picture of Grace. The difficulty with that would be that my understanding of Grace develops over time, so my painting would be covered with smudges from my revisions. And let’s face it, I can’t paint. But I can write. Scratch that too. I can talk. So I will tell you what my painting would look like, if I could paint.

Start with an image of the most gorgeous sunset that you can imagine. Make it one on a pristine beach somewhere. The colors are soft and warm. There are just enough clouds to give the sky texture and break up the light into an interesting pattern. My first concrete image of Grace was just like that. John 1:16 says “and of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” A commentary that I looked it up in described it as waves lapping on the shore, and just like that, my picture of God’s Grace toward us came into being. The water of the ocean, in all its vast immeasurability, quietly and unendingly lapping on the sandy beach, bringing a fresh supply of life-giving nutrients and water to the inhabitants on the shore is a perfect likeness of the all sufficient Grace of our Heavenly Father. His fullness comes to us not just in our times of dire need, but is constantly refilling our reservoir whether we are conscious of it or not. A dimension that a painting cannot give you is sound. Do you hear the waves? When you live near the ocean, the perpetual susurration of the water drops from your normal conscious hearing after awhile. It doesn’t stop. It just ceases to be heard. It only takes something small to bring it back into the realm of your awareness though. How very like our human “selective hearing” is our capacity to let our attention to God slip from our conscious thoughts!
There is something terrifying about the ocean too, but standing here in peace on the beach that terror seems distant and almost impossible. It is the same with the Almighty who created the oceans. When we submit to his Providential Authority, even the most difficult of circumstances came be viewed in the light and peace of His Grace rather than the terror of the unknown.
Now we’ll take a stroll down this beautiful beach. We hear the rush of the water and feel the warmth of the setting sun. A gentle breeze tousles our hair slightly. Holding our sandals in our hand, we pad in the wet sand at the waters edge. When the water is deep enough to swirl around our ankles, take a look behind you. There is nothing there. Every mark, every footstep has been swallowed by the ocean. With each lift of the heel, there is a small slurping sound and the sand and water quickly swirl in, filling each depression and covering all evidence of our passing. Romans 2:1 speaks of “the grace in which we stand”. Taking the picture of the ocean of God’s Grace one step further, we move from seeing the waves endlessly running upon the shore to a broader view; that of being completely immersed and swallowed up by that same Grace. We are surrounded by it, supported by it, and in some ways suppressed by it.
When we imagine standing on the sand watching the lapping of the water, the picture is mostly of God’s Grace coming to us and supplying us with every good thing that our Creator has at his disposal. And that is accurate to a point. But when we imagine being covered by the water and carried away, the picture of the ocean is what fills our minds. Our footprints that vanished behind us no longer enter our thoughts. The most noble and holy efforts of ours here on this earth are not worthy of the slightest glance from the great I AM.(Isa. 64:6) We could spell out the entirety of Scripture in Hebrew and Greek with coconuts on the beach and it would still be diminished by the grandeur of the ocean. While we might not think about our best deeds being erased as an act of Grace, it is. And it goes hand in hand with the Grace of the substitution of the work of Christ for us on the cross.

The next time you need to “find a happy place” in your mind, go to the beach at sunset; but not the beaches in Florida, Hawaii, or the Caribbean. Paint yourself a picture and see the water lapping at your toes, rushing past your knees and carrying you away. Get lost in the ocean of God’s Grace.

*originally written 1/10/07