The Tsunami of Grace

I've been searching for a word picture to help capture the powerfulness and the radicalness and the all encompassingness of the grace of God. As you can probably imagine the choices for such word pictures are slim. However the image that became stuck in my mind last night was that of a tsunami.

Think about it with me for a minute. Tsunamis rise out of the depths of the ocean, seemingly without cause. Isn't God's saving & sanctifying grace very similar. He reaches out and touches (or grabs) us when we least expect it. In addition to this, tsunamis proceed unaffected by any human efforts to slow them down. Like hurricanes, tornadoes and volcanoes, people never try to stop a tsunami. So it is with the grace and mercy of Christ. It proceeds like the bow wave and nothing can keep it from reaching its goal.

A third parallel image between and tsunami and the grace of God is in the destruction a tsunami can cause. This comparison may be harder to accept and may seem callous to those affected by tsunamis, especially the most recent one in Japan. My intent is not to minimize or make light of their suffering or to imply that the Japanese people somehow deserved a tsunami any more than I do. Rather, my point is to compare the total and radical affects of a tsunami with the total and radical affects of the gospel of grace.

I'm sure if you simply close your eyes for a minute, images of the complete and total devastation left by a tsunami would quickly come to mind. Nothing is left unaffected. Nothing is left the way it was. Everything has changed, And because everything has been affected to the ground level, everything must be rebuilt. Everything must be made new. So it is with the grace that God himself provides in Christ. It is not just a new set of clothes. It is not just a new work ethic, It is not just a better way to parent or to relate to your spouse. It is not a different way to vote or spend your money or think about leisure or retirement. It affects these things, to be sure, but cannot be summed up in any or all of them.

Instead, the tsunami of grace destroys us, as we are, so that we can be made new in Christ. There is no better way to say it than the way scripture says it "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Cor 5:17

To God Alone be the Glory