More Than Enough

Reading Isaiah I cannot help thinking about grace. You would think that the Old Testament prophets were all “doom and gloom,” predicting the rise of enemy empires and the fall of Jerusalem. While that is a portion of the books, there is also a strong theme about grace, redemption, and salvation. I wrote earlier about the imagery of the crimson garment being washed clean to be white as snow. Yet Isaiah writes about a time of peace, when a just and kind ruler will judge over the people. A time where “the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat…they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full g the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:6-9. Imagine that, a time of peace that even extends to animals! If simple animals can dwell together in peace imagine how it will be for us people, imagine a place with no war or suffering, instead there is joy, kindness, and love. It is a world full of grace. Grace is one of those church words that is overused and misunderstood. There are many ways to think about grace, but recently today it hit me, that grace means I am not wicked, or evil, or wrong. Grace means I am right with God and saved and there is nothing I can do to add or subtract from it. Grace means I do not need my old sinful life to find satisfaction; it means I am satisfied right now. The devil tries to tempt us by making us believe we are not happy with our current lives, that I am not secure enough to restrain my anger at a rude driver or that I do not have enough and should covet the possessions of others. Grace frees us from this line of thought; grace shows us that we do have enough, actually more than enough. Jesus came down to set us free and get us back on track with God. While getting gifts is great, who doesn’t like receiving a gift from family and friends, let us not forget that we do have enough and we are satisfied, that we don’t need sin to fill ourselves up because when you let God enter your life he overflows into the lives of others.