Grace: The Wind Beneath Your Wings

It was love, you see, that prompted God to let Adam represent us all. Because, by that means, he could later announce that Jesus Christ, a kind of “Second Adam,” also represents us all. And, if death came to us through one man, life comes to us through the other. That is God’s “extravagant” gift. That is grace. And we receive it through Jesus Christ.

And that’s not all. As Paul says, “More than just getting us out of trouble, [Christ] got us into life!”

Remember how early on we talked about sin being a misguided effort to meet our needs. I suggested that our sin is born of fear and mistrust, especially in relation to God. What about that? Paul is telling us that God is not ignorant of our needs. Nor is he neglectful of them. He has designed us, in fact, to have them, and he has planned for their fulfillment. He wants us to trust him to provide for us, to give us life and, with it, confidence and peace, so that we need never be afraid again.

To return to our image of the birds, we might say he rescues us from our strandedness, from our ineffective ways of trying to meet our needs. He rescues us from being stuck. I want to say, “He gives us wings,” but I don’t necessarily like the association! What I will say is that he restores us to flight. He gives us freedom once more. He empowers us, and we can soar again. And his grace -- this “life-giving, extravagant gift” called grace -- well... Dare I say it? It is the wind beneath our wings.