Gentle Waves of Grace

Becky and I had the opportunity to go away for a few days to Door County, Wisconsin this past week. We treasured the time together and thoroughly enjoyed the outdoors — the brilliant fall colors, the towering bluffs, the Lake Michigan shoreline. Right across from where we stayed was a bit of sandy beach with some benches that provided a nice spot for morning devotions. In order to get there, we crossed a highway and walked through and evergreen-covered pathway for a hundred feet or so and then the lakeside scene opened up before us. It was beautiful weather and the lake was calm, but the gentle, faithful lapping of the waves was an inviting background noise to stir some good prayer and contemplation.

I began to think about the grace of God in my life. Like the stone in the sand in the picture I took above, I benefit constantly from the waves of grace upon my life. A.W. Tozer gives us a decent definition, “Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits on the undeserving” (The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 93). Indeed, by grace he has spared me — a guilty sinner — from a dissolute life filled with despair and a fiery judgment. He has made me alive in Christ, through no effort of my own, and has given me a new pattern of living and a matchless hope. But His grace was not just for the day I accepted Christ as Savior and Lord. It is an ongoing movement around my life, changing its environment and changing me, just like the rock in the sand. I am being smoothed and washed by it daily. He sustains my soul for each moment.

I noticed something interesting as I walked away from the water’s edge down the pine-needled path. The sound of the waves began to be muffled and the sounds of the vehicles on the highway began to grow. By the time I reached the road, the water sound was lost and what was left was the heavy sighs of tires on hard pavement. When we walk away from the grace of God, we get a man-made substitute that really is no substitute at all. We are run over by pleasures we think should be exciting. There is movement and shallow inspirations to be sure, but the benefits blow away quickly like fallen leaves on the asphalt. There is no healing, no hope, no lasting happiness. My soul longs for something more.

For followers of Christ, our lives are changed by the grace of God, but do we seek that grace each day from our God who willingly sends wave after wave of it? Do we stop and take notice of what God is doing in us to conform us to the image of Christ? Do we train our souls to listen for the pattern of His gracious waves and live in them? It takes conscious effort to walk day by day with our heavenly Father and know His sweet voice. We have to prioritize and make choices about our lives. We have to say “No” to ourselves and “Yes” to God. But Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light and in Him the weary soul finds rest thanks to the grace of God.

Return, O wanderer, now return,

And seek the Father’s face;

Those new desires which in thee burn

Were kindled by His grace. 

— William Benco Collyer