Grace; It Won’t Stop
With Matt Hooks
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” - Hebrews 13:8
I still remember the first moment I laid my eyes on it, the T100ACE LAG acoustic guitar. It was beautiful. It had a warm bronze face, a long chestnut brown neck and a deep maroon glaze on the back. I sat down and nervously began to play. I was in love. It was almost effortless to strum and instantly I knew it had to be mine. Five minutes later, I was interrupted by the sound of my mum’s voice calling, “Matt! Come on, let’s go!”
I reluctantly placed the guitar back on its display, and ran after my mum who was already halfway down the street. The moment had gone, but all I could think of for the rest of that evening, was that guitar.
A couple of days later, it was my 16th birthday. As per tradition, my family sat around the living room watching as I opened various cards and gifts. Once I’d opened the last of my gifts, my mum got up from the sofa and left the room. She returned a minute later and announced before entering the room, that they had one last surprise for me. She slowly pulled out from behind the door, a large guitar case. I couldn’t believe it. They wouldn’t. Surely it wasn’t THE guitar. I quickly jumped up from my seat, grabbed the case from my mum and gently began to unzip the cover. A familiar bronze face shone through. There it was. The T100ACE acoustic guitar. It was as beautiful as I remembered, and it was mine.
Our first encounter with Jesus can be somewhat similar to this story. The initial excitement and irresistibility of knowing who you are and who created you. It is life changing. It is beyond description. It is love in its greatest form. The real challenge for every believer however, is to continue their relationship with Jesus beyond the first experience of His love. Some discover the rhythm of His grace, whereas others never do. So how do we discover the rhythm of His grace, I hear you say?
When I started to teach myself how to play my new guitar, I found it really challenging to stay in time. I would often slow down and speed up, unaware of how it sounded. My mum, who also played the guitar, recommended that I used a metronome whilst I practiced. This revolutionised the way I played as it gave me a reference point in order to stay in time.
I like to think of the grace of God being like a metronome. It is consistent, never ending and perfectly in time. Like a metronome, it gives us the basis to write the melody of our lives on top of it. Although there are moments in which we do fall out of rhythm, God’s grace is still ticking along. It takes a moment for us to stop, acknowledge His grace, and to continue back in His rhythm, not ours.
The most beautiful thing about God’s grace, is that He gives each one of us a unique melody to play out through our lives. He does not dictate what that should sound like, but gives us a basis in order to write upon. When we, the church, come together as individual melodies, in time to the rhythm of His grace, a truly powerful piece of music is made.
The rhythm of His grace has always been ticking, it is today and will continue to do so until the end of time.
