“Look! All of these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”
This story is a beautiful depiction of a Father who has extended love, mercy and grace to the least deserving. However, he has also extended that same love, mercy and grace to those who feel as though they are the most deserving.
Sometimes it’s hard to watch grace being extended to others when you feel as though you are more deserving than another person. There are moments in each of our lives when we witness someone do something wrong or inappropriate and we think ‘I would never do that’ or ‘I can’t believe they just said that’. In that moment we are full of pride. We are self absorbed. We are acting like a Pharisee. We have head knowledge but very little heart knowledge. Or at best we have forgotten the grace that has been extended to us.
The funny thing about being extended grace is that sometimes it is extended to us and we don’t even realize it. Each day our bosses, friends, professors and even complete strangers extend grace to us without us ever acknowledging it. We are late to work, we are tired and thus a bit more short tempered or are unable to focus, and maybe we say something a bit off color; such actions warrant others the opportunity to extend grace. In hindsight everyone reaps the blessing of another person’s grace.
The reality is that no one deserves the love, mercy and grace of God. And yet God extends it to His children on an hourly basis. It is only by the love of Christ Jesus that we can experience what we do not deserve. In the same way, may we share the love of Christ not only to the least deserving but also to those who feel that they are the most deserving.
Bryan
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2 comments:
Bryan said sometimes grace is extended to us and we don't even realize it. At times I cringe when I think of how ungrateful I have been at times in my life whether it was in my busyness I did not think to notice or it was the log in my own eye that their action did not rise to the level that I thought it should (pride). I truly pray that I grow in gratitude and wisdom as I age.
As a parent, husband and camp administrator I am guilty of extending grace to our guests, but not always to the ones I love. I feel too small when I catch myself in this pattern. I understand grace more now as a husband and father more than ever! God's grace is so amazing and I am still only seeing what my fallen eyes can see this side of glory!
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