The Thread of Grace

"Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? Doth he open and break the clods of his ground?..For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him." Isaiah 28:24, 26

The plowman is instructed by God on how to till the earth: when and where to plant, how to properly till the ground, and what to use to thresh with what. All this is very interesting because the need to till the earth is a result of the Fall (Genesis 3:17-19a). What we see here is God's grace providing mercy in the pain: when the ground is cursed for our sin, He comes in and shows us how to survive.

It could be said that people today cannot see the ark for the flood. God does not abandon us in the pain and the trial and the judgment; His grace is always there. There is no fall so great that God's grace does not touch it with mercy somehow. Even Hell, in all its terror and darkness, is paradoxically tinged with mercy: God saw fit to quarantine those souls who ultimately reject Him to a place set with limits and boundaries, so that they cannot affect and infect anyone on the outside, nor can their sin totally consume them into oblivion. It is the last mercy His grace can do for a soul that will let Him do no more for them.

"The bread corn is bruised..." (Isaiah 28:28a) When man fell, God promised a "bruising" (Genesis 3:15). The Son of God was promised in the garden, and He was the bread bruised for us. In Christ we find that all that God is and says is proven true, including that He is full of grace and mercy. Christ is the ultimate testament to the thread of grace in our existence, woven throughout the entire tapestry of our lives. We hardly notice it: we seem naturally geared to focus solely on what is wrong and frustrating, and totally ignore the moments of grace around us.

In Diary of a Country Priest, the priest's final words before he dies are, "Grace is everywhere." This is a truth we too often miss. At the Fall, God was there; in the flood, God was there; throughout the lives of the patriarchs, God was there; in Egypt and through the wilderness, God was there; through promised land and exile, God was there; from empire to empire, God was there; through trial and tribulation, God is there; through the joy and the sorrow, God is there. It we would only step back and try to take even one tenth of the energy we waste when we worry and become frustrated to focus on the thread of grace woven through our lives, we would be astonished at such doctrine: Why, God was there all along, though I knew Him not! We could truly say with the Psalmist that neither heaven or hell are proper hiding places from Him, and be convinced with Paul that there is nothing that could separate us from the love of God.

How do we ultimately know that God is gracious? Because: Christ died. Jesus is the first letter and final punctuation point in the testimony of who God is. Christ is concrete proof that God is active and enmeshed in our lives, that His grace reaches to the uttermost; for He, being God, made Himself nothing, and condescended to our depths to reach us (Philippians 2:5-7). Christ is that true yet abstract thread of grace bursting through into concrete reality, so that for all time we will know, there is a God in Israel, and He is intimate in our lives.

The Fall brought the need for a plowman, so God filled the need. It also separated us from God, and He bridged that gulf. There is no escaping His grace; it is an inescapable rhythm behind the noise of the world. Even in Hell, though you never will nor can know its presence, you are still wrapped up in its web. When the gray rain curtain of this world is rolled back, and all is seen in the light of God's presence, we will be astounded at the tapestry He has woven, and we will cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory!" Amen.

"From the Heights of Heaven,

To the Depths of Hell;

To the Uttermost,

Your Grace touches All..."

-Jon Vowell