But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, –Ephesians 2:4-8
One of my favorite things about this passage is the ability it has to raise you up and put you in a good mood no matter how your day is going. Last week was an “interesting” one for me. I found I needed to get some much needed refreshment so I opened my Bible and went straight to this passage. And as I read it I was reminded that I belong, that no matter what may come, or how often I think I don’t measure up God’s grace will abound. So much so that I’m practically swimming in his “immeasurable riches of grace…”
For some reason I had to laugh at myself a little, because all I could think of when I read this was an image from a cartoon I used to watch as a kid. I might be dating myself with this reference: Scrooge McDuck in Duck Tales. In the cartoon Scrooge McDuck had a daily ritual: He would go to his Money Bin (a gigantic building filled with money) and he would dive into his riches and swim in them. And at the end of his “swim” he’d toss the coins up in the air and let them fall on his head.
And THAT is what I thought about as I read this passage. Swimming in God’s grace daily, doing the backstroke in his mercy, and then stopping for a moment and tossing his love in the air and letting it fall on my head.
By definition I’m undeserving of His grace; I fall short of His glory and I’m aware of that every morning I wake up. I’m weak and have flaws and I tend to be rude with people I love and I often drink the last of the milk and leave the carton in the fridge (to remind me to buy more). And so I need to remind myself that I have value in His eyes and that his grace is abundantly more than I could ever need; “his grace is sufficient.”
We all have those days, in which we feel undeserving or weak and we tend to not show ourselves much grace at all. But let’s remember that He has seated us with him in heavenly places. We can rest assured in his acceptance and swim freely in his grace. Let’s make it our daily habit to remind ourselves of his immeasurable grace, and that it’s not something we’ve earned but rather God’s gift to us! Now go out and take a dip.