The Grace Card

by Shirley Shim
(08/05/2014)

"For it is by grace you have been saved."

- Ephesians 2:8

I stayed home from work today so I watched a lot of TV. They were showing this Christian movie in the afternoon called the Grace Card. The movie is mainly about this policeman who loses his son in an accident and for the next 17 years his life is filled with bitterness and hatred. There was even an element of racism as the person who killed his son was an African American. So he really hated African Americans. His family is falling apart, his surviving son starts hanging out with the wrong crowd. In the end his son gets shot and needs a kidney, and it is his African American police partner who gives his son one of his kidneys. In the end the son is saved, and the first guy who killed his elder son comes to ask for forgiveness after being released from prison. The movie ends with a scene in church where the police officer who donated his kidney (who is also part time pastor) is speaking to his congregation about justice and grace. How the grace card came about was his great great grandfather used to be a slave, and one day the master gathered all his slaves together and asks for their forgiveness for treating them badly and he released them all. This grace card was written by the great great grandfather to his master, “I promise to pray for you every day, ask for forgiveness, grant you the same and be your friend always.”

What the pastor had said about justice and grace struck me. We all know grace as a gift from God, Ephesians 2:8 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God--.

What struck me was that when we think of grace we think of God, but what about grace given by man, to man? This movie implied that very often in our lives we seek justice, when something happens we are only satisfied if justice is served. But it takes a bigger person to have the grace to forgive, without the need for justice. It did make me think, will I ever be able to have the grace to forgive without seeking justice? It started me thinking about that doctor that caused my dad's death, have I forgiven him? Will I be able to forgive him? I did think if he felt sorry and contrite and stood in front of us asking for forgiveness, I will be able to forgive. But what if he didn't feel sorry? What if he still pretended not to know? Am I able to forgive a person knowing he or she is not sorry? It is by God's grace that we are saved, and there is no conditional grace that He gives us, that we need to be good or be sorry or perform lots of charity work. As long as we believe, we are saved. So if we want to be Christlike, we have to give grace freely too, no conditions, no judgement, even without justice. So to everyone out there, “I promise to pray for you every day, ask for forgiveness, grant you the same and be your friend always.” Amen.