After rescuing Israel, God tells His people to build a sanctuary so that He may dwell among them. The tabernacle reveals something essential about God’s heart: He desires to be present with His people. John deliberately uses that same imagery when he says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In Jesus, God’s presence is no longer located in a tent or temple; God Himself walks into ordinary homes, sits at tables with sinners, and moves toward people others avoid. Redemption is more than God doing something for us from a safe distance. The God of Scripture comes near.

The Exodus becomes the defining rescue story of the Old Testament: enslaved people who cannot free themselves are delivered because God acts on their behalf. The Passover lamb, the escape from Egypt, and the crossing of the sea all become pieces that help us understand what Jesus ultimately comes to do. Jesus describes His own mission as giving His life as a ransom for many. God’s answer to bondage is not simply helping us cope with it; His purpose is freedom. The Exodus points beyond Egypt toward the deeper rescue we all need—a deliverance from sin that only God can accomplish.

When God calls Abraham, His promise is bigger than one man, one family, or one nation. God intends to bless all peoples through him. That promise becomes one of the major pieces of Scripture’s redemptive picture and ultimately finds its fulfillment in Jesus. In encounters like the one with Zacchaeus, we see Jesus carrying God’s grace across the boundaries people create and bringing salvation to those others might have written off. The Gospel was never intended to become the private possession of a favored few. From the beginning, God’s plan has been to extend His grace to every nation, every kind of person, and every person willing to receive it.

The beauty of creation does not take long to fracture. Genesis 3 shows humanity distrusting God, choosing its own way, and introducing sin, shame, separation, and death into the picture. But even in the middle of the fracture, God begins pointing toward redemption. When Jesus arrives announcing that the Kingdom of God has come near, He is not simply offering better religious behavior—He is announcing God’s answer to everything sin has broken. The Kingdom is God reclaiming and restoring His creation. The brokenness we see around us and within us is real, but it does not get to define the finished picture.

There are moments when life can feel like a collection of disconnected pieces—some beautiful, some painful, and some we have no idea what to do with. We wonder if there is a larger picture, whether our lives really have purpose, and where God fits into any of it. What if the pieces aren’t random? What if we were created intentionally, and even the brokenness we experience isn’t enough to make God walk away? The story of Scripture begins with a God who created us in His image and then did something remarkable when that image became fractured: He came near. In Jesus, the God who made us stepped into our world to bring light into darkness, life into death, and restoration to what has been broken.

Sometimes we wonder if we're making any difference in our world. We feel like maybe we're in the wrong place or doing the wrong things. We want to be world changers, but our lives feel mundane and ordinary. How can an ordinary mom or someone who's “just” an office worker really make a difference? But what if God has placed you where you are on purpose? What if simply standing firm in the place where you live matters much more than you realize? God has placed each of us in neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, families, and communities where our presence can make a difference. And in the book of Jeremiah, we find a reminder that changing our world is not only about what happens inside the church, but about how we live, serve, love, and bring hope wherever God has placed us.

The book of Jonah does not end with Nineveh’s repentance, but with Jonah’s resentment. The prophet who received mercy struggles to rejoice when that same mercy is shown to his enemies. In the final week of Waves of Mercy, we will confront the uncomfortable question Jonah leaves behind: can we really claim to love God’s mercy if we resent the people God gives it to?

When Jonah finally goes to Nineveh, the unthinkable happens: the people Jonah wanted to avoid become the people God chooses to forgive. Their repentance confronts us with one of the most uncomfortable truths in Scripture—God’s mercy is not limited to the people we like, understand, approve of, or would have chosen. This week, we will wrestle with the wideness of God’s compassion and the challenge of celebrating mercy when it is given to “them.”