Full of Grace

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

Jesus Christ is extreme grace. He is Full of Grace; He is grace on steroids. That having been said, most people don’t understand simple grace much less grasp its full concentration. To explain it, I’ll use an illustration that comes from the jungles of Ecuador.

Dangerous animals live in the rainforest. Anacondas, jaguars, and scorpions come to mind, but few have heard of the most dangerous of them all – stinging caterpillars. They’re everywhere! Once I was walking on a jungle trail when I brushed against some low hanging branches. A “chinicuru,” as the Indians call it, fell down my T-shirt and it rolled down my back leaving a raised, painful burn that lasted for hours. I really don’t like these things!

On another occasion, I went to visit a Quichua family. When I got to their thatched hut, the parents had already gone to work in the garden leaving the twelve year old in charge of her five younger siblings. I came unexpectedly, so I caught them in the process of torturing a chinicuru. They had formed a circle with the coals from the kitchen cooking fire and they put the caterpillar in the middle. Whatever direction it turned, it would burn off the venomous bristles that covered its body.

As the only adult present, not to mention a missionary and ambassador of Christ’s love, I felt that I should say something, but I didn’t. I wanted to see the awful beast burn. Did I mention that I hate those things?

Now, if I wanted to save that ugly worm, I could have reached my hand down and let it crawl up my finger to escape the danger. However, if I did that, I would have gotten burned, ……. twice! Once by the fire and once from that stinging caterpillar. But I would never do that. I’ve been stung too many times. Who would ever do that? The only One who could possibly do something like that would be the critter’s Creator. Saving it, He would allow it to transform into the beautiful moth that it was designed to be. But if the Creator did that, He’d have a love for the unlovely that would be so intense, you’d need a new word to describe it – let’s call it Grace.

The human race has rebelled against God and is much more dangerous than stinging caterpillars, yet Christ died on the cross so that we could live. Jesus clearly is Full of Grace.

August 23