After Adam and Eve sinned and were expelled from the Garden of Eden, things went from bad to worse. Genesis 4 starts with a murder, mentions another, and leads to this: “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
The sins of humanity became so great that God said he would destroy man and everything else. Then something amazing happened. “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
Even though God’s judgement was just, one person’s good life brought about his mercy. Instead of destroying everything, God would spare Noah, his family, and the other creatures of the world. Notice that only Noah found grace, but more than Noah was spared.
This is a principle that is repeated in the Bible. When Lot was escaping Sodom and Gomorrah, the angels told him to go all the way to the mountain. All the plain (including the other cities in it) would be destroyed. Lot appealed to grace and asked to go to a city in the plain instead. As a result, the entire city of Zoar was spared.
That’s a second witness that God extends his grace beyond the person who has found it. How might that apply in your life? When you walk with God, he will often bless people around you as he is blessing you. Maybe just because you ask. It’s not an absolute, but it’s an encouraging thought.