When Love Broke Through on a Slave Ship

In 1748, a violent storm nearly sank a slave trading vessel off the coast of Ireland. John Newton, the ship's mate, was a profane man who mocked faith and trafficked in human misery. But as the waves crashed over the deck and the hull began to crack, Newton found himself crying out to the God he had ridiculed for years.

That moment did not instantly transform him. Newton continued in the slave trade for several more years. But the seed of grace had been planted, and it grew slowly, persistently, the way love always does. Over the following decades, Newton became an Anglican priest, a fierce abolitionist, and the author of what may be the most beloved hymn in the English language.

What strikes me about "Amazing Grace" is not just its poetry but its patience. Newton did not write it until 1772, nearly twenty-five years after that storm. The love of the Almighty did not demand immediate perfection. It pursued him through years of moral failure, through slow awakening, through the grinding work of repentance.

The apostle Paul wrote that love is patient and kind. Newton's life is a testimony to that patience. God did not wait for Newton to become worthy of love before offering it. He loved Newton in the middle of the storm, in the middle of the sin, in the middle of the mess.

That is how the Holy One loves each of us — not after we get it right, but long before we do.