Thursday March 26th - I want it

DAILY BYTE

A few days ago, I stood at the till at Spar, waiting for the cashier to hand me my receipt. I looked around in boredom and happened to notice a grandfatherly person with a little girl of about three years old standing behind me. The little girl was digging around in the candy boxes that are so cleverly and conveniently placed on the level of small children – much, I’m sure, to the chagrin of their parents. All of a sudden, her head popped up, and her arm held out a Kinder Joy egg to the older man. She declared triumphantly with a big smile on her face, “I want it!”

I turned back around to hide my giggle, which could have been perceived by the child as condoning her behaviour… But I could not deny that beyond my amusement, I was struck by a concept she so readily announced but I had not considered for a long time: if I want something, I can have it.

Before we dismiss her childish selfishness too quickly in our adult urgency to teach her good stewardship of finances and the difference between “need” and “want,” consider for a moment that there are some things in life that we can have, simply if we desire them!

Forgiveness, salvation, and grace are absolutely, positively free of charge to us, if we want them! In this way, it seems that God is not nearly as stingy as we are. God is not nearly so legalistic and reserved. Instead, God triumphantly – even recklessly – scatters grace wherever it may fall so that when we desire it, and perhaps, even when we do not, grace is given to us and faith grows in us.

As Romans declares, there is no distinction between who deserves this gift and who does not. As adults with supposed wisdom, we often take it as our responsibility to decide who should benefit from such gifts as salvation and forgiveness and who is un-deserving. Romans is adamant: ALL have sinned, and all continue to fall short of the glory of God, whether we are three years old, twenty-six years old, or eighty-five.

And so, if grace is given to us all as a gift, are we declaring vehemently, even in the midst of a public grocery store – I WANT IT!?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, you have given the gift of grace to us freely. Help us to accept it freely, proclaiming to the world that it is available to all and proclaiming to you that we desire it for ourselves and for all people. Keep us from being inhibited by the stingy limitations of this world, and show us the full measure of your abundant grace. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Romans 3:21-24

But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,