Recently my siblings and I met at the home where we grew up to prepare it for sale. It is challenging to sift through 50 years of memories and artifacts, furniture, and mementoes.
“And let’s not forget about the coins,” my brother offered. “They belonged to Mom’s mom.”
Some of Grandma Evelyn’s coins dated from the early 1900s. From what we figure, the rarest are the Morgan Silver Dollars (named after the artist who crafted them). The most valuable — those deemed “uncirculated” — show the beauty of Mr. Morgan’s “Liberty” on one side and an “eagle clasping arrows” most clearly on the other.
In a similar way, God has extended to us a beautiful two-sided love, and is shaping us into the image of His Son. On the one hand, God mercifully held back the brunt of punishment we deserve as sinners, and then He graciously saved us from our fleshy deadness through the sacrifice of Jesus. We deserved to pay for our wrongdoing, but in compassion, He restrained. And while we may think we can earn our salvation, in the end we rely on His gracious, unmerited favor to be made alive in Christ.
Can you imagine a one-sided coin? Or consider a two-sided coin with Liberty, but no eagle? Similarly, can you imagine God showing us mercy, but not grace? Or grace without mercy? Thank God that His redemption is whole — a two-sided love playing out His plan to bring us to Himself.
Dear God, thank you for your great acts of kindness to us, in warding off the sentence of death, and offering the gift of eternal life. May we with grateful hearts acknowledge and accept your two-way display of extravagant affection. Amen.
Go Deeper ― The next time you grab a coin from your pocket or purse, remember both sides of God: mercy and grace. Take a moment to thank Him for them both.
Photo Credit: Rodion Kutsaev