Biblical Rays of Grace

Yesterday Amy and I went to a Ray's game. I hate to watch them lose, and hate even more to actually pay money and go to a game and watch them lose. Last time Amy and I went to a game, Scott Kazmir started and threw 10 straight balls, paving the way for a Rays 13-5 loss to the Red Sox. This time I strategically picked a game in which the Rays played 2nd worst team in baseball.

Kazmir was once again on the mound, and this time against against the Royal's ace Zach Greinke, but things definitely started out much differently. Instead of 10 straight balls, Kazmir struck out the first two batters. Yet it was even before the game began when things started looking up.

Amy and I got dropped off by my mother-in-law (fortunately because I had only 3 dollars in my wallet) and began walking toward the ticket counter. Someone asked me if I had tickets, and I told him, "No," not really thinking about it. Then immediately a woman in workout clothes approached us with the same question.

Only this time her accosting appeared more pleasant. Take these tickets. They're really good seats, but I can't use them because I have to go....

So I grabbed them, thanked her, and preceded to walk towards our new seats, only 8 rows back from the Royal's dugout. Crazy.

Was this grace? Had we done anything to deserve these tickets? Yes, it was definitely grace and we hadn't deserved them. But I was thinking, even this picture of grace (all illustrations fall short at some point, it's just how far they can go) didn't hold up to a biblical picture of God's grace toward us.

Check this out: "...At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.... But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6,8)."

I was powerless in that I couldn't pay her back-seeing as I had no real cash to my name then-but I definitely hadn't sinned against her by dishonoring her sarcastically with my lips in front of my wife and son in anger on the way to a picnic the day before. So not really the same sense of grace God shows His children: giving good when they deserve bad.

However God the Father, the giver of all good things, did reinforce to me yesterday that he continues to love me graciously (giving me good things when I deserve bad things). So grace was definitely shown, and this woman was simply the vessel by which He both reinforced and demonstrated biblical grace to me.