“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1, NRSV)
Unless you’re a character from “Frozen,” if you need to take mass transit in Chicago on a 5-degree January night, you should always take the subway rather than a bus. Should I go underground where it’s heated or stand in a pitiful little shelter where the wind is piercing through your skin? It’s a no-brainer. For some reason, however, I recently decided to take the second option and wait for the bus. It finally arrived and I climbed the steps to swipe my fare card, but I got a message that was the last thing I was looking for. Whenever you swipe a fare card, there’s a little screen that goes green and cheerfully flashes the word, “Go!” This time, however, the screen went red and unhelpfully gave a different message:
Insufficient fare. (And if there had been a frowny-face emoji, I wouldn’t have been surprised).
I swiped the card again. Flash of red, same message: Insufficient fare. I thought my bus card automatically reloaded so that I would have sufficient fare, but apparently, I was out of luck. I looked at the driver, gave him a look of remorse, and started to get off the bus.
“Come on!” he yelled.
I looked at him and didn’t understand. Was he really going to let me on the bus without paying?
If I stopped the story here, it would be a pretty great illustration of grace, which is something Christians like to talk (and sing) a lot about. Isn’t it great to receive something even when we seemingly don’t deserve it?
But here’s the thing. Maybe it was the cold, but I wasn’t taking the driver up on the offer. I had grace in front of me and I couldn’t comprehend it. I couldn’t fathom receiving it.
So he said it again: “Come on.”
And that’s the real power of grace. It’s not just God looking at our insufficient fare cards and saying, you’re still invited and welcome. It’s the fact that God is so adamant that we receive this grace. We can come up with all kinds of excuses and keep pleading our insufficiencies, but the invitation will continue to be offered for us to get on the bus.
He didn’t have to ask twice. I said thank you and began the ride.