Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. (Romans 5:20b)

Why? Why does God pour out so much grace into our lives? Why, no matter how often we fail, or how far we run, or how sinful we can be, does He continue to pour out His grace on us? Is it merely to save us from hell? Our eternal “ticket” to heaven? Let us not forget the high price He paid in order to  offer us such abundant grace.

No matter how hard I try, or perhaps, more correctly, how little I try, to truly press in to His high calling, I continually fall short. I tarnish my witness with my words, or I walk in a way that deems me completely unworthy of the title “Christian”. My heart can often be hardened by others actions or inactions, and I look anything but “like” Christ. Yet, when I approach the Majesty of Mercy with humility and full knowledge of how unlike Him I continue to be, He pours the oil of grace over my head and covers me so completely that , in His sight, all of my unrighteousness completely disappears.

I cannot comprehend why God would do this? Perhaps…could it possibly be…that He actually thinks I am worth it? That I am so precious to Him that He desires to be with me for all eternity? That truly sounds absurd. But that is exactly the reason God pours His grace, His limitless grace, on me.

His desire from the moment He breathed His eternal breath into man was intimate relationship. Think of the intimacy of a kiss. Imagine the actions of someone attempting to revive a person that has drowned or for some other reason is no longer breathing. Mouth to mouth. God literally kissed us into an eternal existence with complete knowledge of how unfaithful we would be. He knew before His lips ever touched His creation that it would be a relationship that would cost Him everything. Yet, still He leaned over and bestowed the first kiss recorded in all of history on the lips of His creation even as the smell of the damp earth, used to form him, lingered.

The only thing I can think to compare that kind of love with is how I felt when they placed my newborn child into my arms for the first time.  I was overwhelmed with a desire to protect and a love that was so intense it caught me by surprise.

And if I, a parent full of shortcomings and imperfections, can love like that, than it becomes easier to understand, or perhaps in some small way comprehend, the reason for God’s abundant grace.

Do you think you have fallen to far to feel His grace? Are you haunted by your past? Or perhaps there is a particular sin that you can’t seem to shake, and you wonder if you can really come to Him one more time for the same sin.  Hebrews 4:16 tells us to  come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

I pray  today that you feel the gentle kiss of grace that is freely offered from your loving Father.