Skipping along, excited to play, her chips suddenly fell from her hand and scattered to a mess all over the floor. Out came that bottom lip and a cry was about to burst from inside her. "DADDY!!" she screamed, and immediately turned to her father sitting nearby, panicked at the size of the mess she'd made. When she caught his attention, she pointed to the chips strewn all over the floor.
With gentle grace in his voice, he looked her in her eyes--those big, glistening blue eyes--and said, "It's okay, baby, just pick it up."
At the sound of her father's gentle words, it's as though she was instantly comforted, and the cry was snatched from erupting through her lips. She knelt down to her knees, and began scooping up the mess. Once she'd gathered all the chips up in her hands, she walked closer to her father and asked him pleadingly, "Where's the trash can?"
Her father held out his hands and said to her, "Here, give it to me. I'll throw it away for you."
The worry faded from her face as she handed him her mess, and as he took it from her, she grinned, hugged him, and that innocent, dimple-cheeked smile returned to her face. As her father walked to the trash can to throw away the chips that had made such a mess, she skipped away, hair bouncing on her shoulders, as she hummed a sweet tune.
As I sat back, soaking in the situation that played out before me, I couldn't help but notice the comparison to our own Father's gentle grace.
I think about how many times I've come running to God, crying about the latest mess I've made. But in His loving grace, he simply looks me back into my eyes and says, "It's okay, my daughter, just give the mess to me, and I'll clean it up for you." He reminds me of the price already paid, the death that took my sin and disposed of it on the cross, then left it in the grave. He doesn't scold me or shame me, just takes me by the hand and helps me back to my feet to start walking again.
What love and grace He has lavished on us! We had no right to be called children of God Most High, yet He chose to love us, to save us, to make us His. And when we fail or stumble, He casts no condemnation, for it's Christ's blood that has made us innocent, not our own absence of failure.
Oh, gracious God, how can we ever repay you?That's just it. We cannot repay him. We need not repay him. The work was finished on the cross, because it's the only payment that could ever satisfy. When we begin to grasp this incredible truth, how can we not offer Him anything but everything we've got?
We don't have much, but may we give what do we have--all of ourselves--to Him, in response to such great love that He has lavished on us.
May you walk in God's grace, clinging to the ways He has loved you.
May you curl up in His lap, and find that He casts no condemnation for your mistakes.
May this grace lead us to repentance, that we may walk deeper into wonderful fellowship with our Father.
"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!..." 1 John 3:1
"The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him" Daniel 9:9
