Slowing Our Descent

Today, my mom and I discussed the parachute analogy. The premise is that we have foolishly jumped out of a plane without a parachute and are about to become subjected to the full consequences of the law of gravity. However, a Friend, sensing that we were about to do that, quickly strapped a parachute onto our backs before we left the plane, and thus we are allowed a way to "cheat" gravity. The parachute doesn't break the law of gravity or any of the other laws of physics. Rather, it works within those laws to provide us a solution. This is supposed to be an illustration of how there can be Mercy without denying Justice; however, this version of the analogy doesn't seem fully plausible to me. I hardly think that any Friend could put provide us with a parachute that quickly, no matter how skilled that Friend is. Rather, I have a different analogy that also uses the same Justice and Mercy moral, but also works in a lesson of Grace and Works.

In my version, we jumped out of the plane without a parachute, and our Friend jumped out behind us with a spare. In this version, our Friend dives quickly in hopes of catching up to us, but He needs us to cooperate in order for Him to succeed. If we're falling as fast as He is, He won't catch up with us, and we'll die. So, to survive, we need to slow our descent as much as possible. Granted, we won't be able to slow ourselves down to the point where the fall wouldn't be fatal. We cannot be saved by works alone. But our works may enable our Friend to catch us and provide us with the one tool that can help us survive, His Grace. Yet, even when we have access to the parachute, we still need to pull the cord, so a bit more work on our part is required. Still, it's the parachute that saves us, not the fact that we pulled a cord.

Ultimately, we need both Grace and Works. We need to do our part to gain access to Divine Grace,  but doing our part won't be enough on its own. We need Grace in order to be saved, though it still takes some Work on our part to secure and apply that Grace. At this point, we can't stop ourselves from falling to our deaths, at least not on our own. However, it is essential that we do everything in our power to slow our descent and to take full advantage of that parachute when we get it.