zacchaeus, coke, liberty mutual and the transforming grace of God

at the end of our study of titus a couple weeks ago, i was talking with one of the girls about attitudes with bothersome people, especially a particular teacher of hers, and how our christianity should be evident even in those situations. i reminded her of zacchaeus' words in Luke 19:8 that she had memorized last year: "but zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, 'look, Lord! here and now i give half of my possessions to the poor, and if i have cheated anybody out of anything, i will pay back four times the amount.'"

talk about a dramatic response to the presence of Jesus! we discussed what this would look like lived out practically in our lives. as an example, i suggested that instead of saying bad things about the teacher, a reaction of grace might be to bake her brownies - "because Jesus had mercy on me, and because i have spoken poorly of you." she said that she can't really bake brownies, and i said, "it was merely metaphorical."

after she left that day, i continued to think about the concept of the ripple effect of our truly living out of the transforming grace of God shown to us in the death of Christ. astounding. then i began to think about a coke commercial i had seen. (thanks matt c. for finding it and pointing out the liberty mutual ones, too)





if these companies "get it" enough to use this concept to sell us soda or insurance, how much more so should those around us understand that the grace of God has "gotten us?" so i'm gonna keep meditating on Titus 2:11-3:8 and looking to bake some metaphorical brownies to the glory of God!