If Grace is an Ocean....

The lyrics are from a song we sang in church this weekend.

We are His portion and He is our prize

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes

If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking

source

As we sang I contemplated those words...If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.  No one wants to be sinking in the ocean.  Or really any body of water for that matter.  But, to be sinking, drowning in the grace of the Father, I'll take that.

I don't remember learning how to swim.  I was very small when my parents had a pool built in our backyard.  According to my dad, he tossed me in the water, and I began swimming.  I had just always known how to do it.  My brother, too.  I cannot remember a time when I didn't know how to swim.  We swam in our pool, in neighbor's pools, in the pool at the Country Club, in the ocean.  I grew up swimming.  And now that I'm a parent, I have been tasked with teaching my son to swim.  It's not as easy as my dad made it out to be.  There have been moments in the pool when I am trying to get little David to paddle a few inches on his own, and when I let go, I can see the panic in his eyes.  He's sinking and he's scared. 

It's not like that with God.  Our Father is not teaching us how to swim.  To swim through His grace would be to take it for granted.  Our Father wants us to sink like a stone.  But there's be no gasping for breath, or panic, or fear, or flailing.  I'm sinking in His Grace right now.  I'm in over my head in grace.  Grace is suffocating me.  Thank God for that.

So those lyrics really hit it home for me.  I really understand (the best I could being a sinful human) what grace is.  It surrounds us, covers us, envelops us, takes over us.  His grace abounds.  It's like an ocean and we are sinking in it.  I am sinking in His grace when I lose patience with my son and my husband.  I am sinking in His grace when I hold that grudge that I need to let go.  I am sinking when I make selfish decisions with my time, money, and comfort.  I am always sinking.

At the same time, I need to allow others to sink in MY grace.  If God's grace abounds for me, my grace should abound for others.  Let me pull them under with me, let me be gracious so that they may feel God's grace, too.  Lifeguard, be darned!  Let's all sink in grace! 

And oh, how He loves us so

Oh how He loves us,

How He loves us so

He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves.

He loves me so deeply that He wants me to sink in His grace.  I'm in over my head in His love and in His grace.  I'm sinking....