Sunday, July 20, 2008

Hoarding Grace

Well I know the frustration of many a pro-active Isrealite upon discovering that their industry in stockpiling manna had proved worthless.

The initial miracle of the bread of heaven must have felt breathtakingly tender. Looking upward as they gathered the mystery carbohydrate, I know their hearts overflowed with gratitude. And common sense dictates thusly: What a wondrous gift to our starving nomadic (misleading term, don't you think? after all, they were headed somewhere) hearts. I must take advantage of this grace and not waste it. Thank you Lord, I'll take it from here.

And so brought out the baskets and laid up a store like any responsible financial planner must do.

And so forth did the parabolic venture capitalist of the New Testament earn the epithet "fool" from Jesus.

This applies not only materially to us, but spiritually, at first a tragedy, then a relief, to our mortal perspective. Were grace awarded on a meritorious earnings basis, we could, as we are wont, plan for our future, taking a little (or a lot, depending on your Scroogeness) out each week for the days ahead.

Thankfully, grace is not awarded meritoriously, hence the term, grace, I guess.

But the sustenance of grace is what I refer to. The strength to go on is given as needed, morning by morning, hour by hour; a frightfully effective way of gaining our peaceful trust.

The Zarapheth widow . . .do you suppose she ever looked into the barrel in the morning, and wondered ungratefully, Why does He not fill it up all the way to the top?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to admit that I would be guilty of wondering why the Lord didn't fill the barrel up while He was at it...I wonder if there ever comes a time when we learn how to accept the offered grace, instead of expecting more like ungrateful wretches...Good, thought-provoking blog!

Anonymous said...

Still thinking.

Anonymous said...

You know what I thought when I read your blog? I'll bet you could write songs! and Devan could write the music. That sounds like a fine idea to me. You'll have to tone down the big words, though. Love, Your biggest (maybe) fan.