Do you know the difference between a two-year-old and a three-year-old? A two-year-old will share her cookie with you. A three-year-old won’t.
Sometime around our third birthday, we learn that the quantity of the cookie is limited. We realize that giving part of our cookie to mommy means less cookie for us. And we’ve known for some time that less cookie for us is a very bad thing.
I think this understanding of limited quantities of desirable things can hinder us from understanding God’s grace and forgiveness. It’s hard to wrap our brains around a fountain of grace that never runs out . . . that never lessens later no matter how much I need now . . . that never lessens for me no matter how much you need.
I love these thoughts from The Valley of Vision, “Calvary’s Anthem”:
“At the cross there is free forgiveness
for poor and meet ones,
and ample blessings that last for ever;
The blood of the Lamb is like a great river of infinite grace
with never any diminishing of its fullness as thirsty ones without
number drink of it.”
Can you imagine a river of infinite grace that never diminishes in fullness? We can never exhaust God’s grace and forgiveness. Christ accomplished this for us!
When my troubles exhaust my emotional resources and when my sin exhausts my spiritual resources, this truth brings great comfort – the resources of grace and forgiveness that I own in Christ will never run out.
My daughter likes to beat me in the “I Love You” game by saying she loves me to infinity. The other day, she confessed that she can’t count to infinity because she doesn’t know all the numbers. I told her that even if she did know a lot more numbers, she could never count to infinity.
Infinity means there is always one more number. And the reason there is always one more number is because we live in a world created by an infinite God. We can never get to the end of His numbers, and we can never get to the end of His grace.
“O Lord, for ever will thy free forgiveness live
that was gained on the mount of blood;
In the midst of a world of pain
it is a subject for praise in every place, a song on earth, an anthem in
heaven, its love and virtue knowing no end.”
– The Valley of Vision, “Calvary’s Anthem”
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