Recently on the news I heard the sad story of a hiking party that got caught in a rockslide. Of the five members of the party, only one survived, a 13-year old named Gracie Johnson. According to Gracie, as the 100-ton boulders began to tumble down around them, her father, Dwayne, jumped on top of her in order to protect her. His body received the full-force of the crushing boulder and saved her life in the process.

I couldn’t hear this story (or any other about self-sacrifice for that matter) without thinking of Jesus. Doesn’t this father’s heroic act perfectly parallel what He did for each of us on the cross? Our sin is just like those boulders. It is bearing down on us with all of its impending force, threatening to crush us, to kill us, to break us completely. But before the death blow can be delivered, Jesus himself jumps in and bears the crushing weight. He is broken for us. His death secures our life.

Is it any coincidence that this young girl’s name is Gracie? She will live because of the heroic act of her father. The same is true of us. We walk in a new life of grace because of what Jesus did for us. Grace is our new name. Grace is our testimony. Grace is the song we sing.

I wonder how Gracie’s life will be different as a result of what her father did for her that day. She lost her entire family in that horrible tragedy, and I cannot imagine the depths of pain and grief that she must be experiencing. And yet, how will it change her to know that her father’s last earthly act was one of costly love and sacrifice in order to give her life? How does that same knowledge change us?