Saved By Grace

When I was about five years old I almost drown in a large creek by my house. My dad was taking my two older brothers fishing and I begged him to let me come along. We packed some sandwiches and filled a coffee can with slimy worms and walked the two miles down the road. After an hour or so of no fish biting, dad decided to go downstream and cross to the other side. My father instructed us to go up and over the bank, cross the bridge and back down the other side. There had been a lot of rain and the water was high and rushing under the bridge. I decided that it would be quicker to just walk under the bridge and beat them to the otherside. As I started walking the shin deep water quickly became neck deep, and churning. I was struggling to keep my footing and my head above water. I was begining to panic as I felt myself being swept along and gasping for air. I caught a glimpse of a large wooden pallet against the middle of the support beam for the bridge. As I was swept past I reached for it and clung on with all the strength I had. To my dismay, it was not attatched and fell on top of me, pushing me under the water. I was pinned underneath and could not lift it off myself, it was just too heavy. I would have drown that day, except my brother pulled the pallet off me and my father grabbed me and dragged me to shore.

Reflecting on this memory has opened my eyes to God's amazing grace and helped me to understand His soveriegn work of salvation in my life. Before He brings us to a saving knowledge of Himself, we are lost in our sin. We live our lives according to our own desires and choose the path that we think is best. Before we know it, sin is pushing and pulling us where we do not want to go and sweeping us to our destruction. We reach out to anything around us in hopes of keeping our head above water. All these things fail to help and only push us down further, where we are trapped and despairing. God, in His mercy, reaches down and lifts us out and places us safely on solid ground.

"For He rescued us from the dominion of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:13-14

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8