Dads and Grace

As frustrating as my first car accident was last winter, it enabled me to experience the Gospel through my earthly relationships more richly than I ever have before.

As carefully as I was driving, I was apparently going too fast to make the snowy, downhill turn. My brakes locked up, I hit a patch of ice that was hidden under the snow, and the car slid hopelessly into the curb.

I knew it would probably be expensive since even the most seemingly simple repairs end up being expensive when it comes to cars, but it was my fault, and I knew I needed to be responsible for the cost of the repair, even if I couldn’t really afford it.

So I mustered up all the courage I could gather to go into my dad’s dealership and tell him that it was my fault, and I would pay for the damage to, technically, his car.

“How much did the repair cost?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied.

“But it was my fault,” I said. “I should be the one who pays for it.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m in a much better position to pay for it than you are.”

“You shouldn’t have to do that. I don’t really know what to say,” I muttered, holding back tears.

He wrapped up the conversation and said,

“I know, but that’s what dads are for.”

I was speechless. In that moment I think I cried in front of my dad more than I had since I was a little kid. We hugged, tears in his eyes too, and I drove away sobbing knowing that I would never be able to repay my dad for the act of grace he had shown me and feeling like I was the main character in one of Jesus’s parables.

This is by no means a perfect metaphor for the Cross, but the parallels to the Gospel are mostly obvious. I couldn’t pay for or fix the damage I’d caused, and though I didn’t deserve it, my dad took care of it because he loves me.

Earthly fathers have a lot to live up to, and even the best of dads fall short of God’s fathering. That being said, in this two minute interaction with my dad, I experienced in a very real way the love and grace of God the Father.

And in the end, I wasn’t most grateful that I had x amount of dollars more than if I’d paid for it myself, but for the relationship that I have with my dad and the opportunity this incident gave me to experience more of his character.

The Gospel happened, it’s happening, and it continues to play out in every relationship we have. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have experienced it and to be brought closer to my earthly father. -CK