Grace

Today my parents cut me a check, which to most people probably wouldn't be so surprising since I do office work for them sometimes. To me, for the first time, it took me aback. My parents fed/clothed/gifted/provided for me for 21 years under their roof - and they have taken care of my little family in a multitude of ways. It's just this love that I can't wrap my mind around - and when it all boils down it ultimately has nothing to do with the check. 

I have been rebellious. I have been ungrateful. Wretched. They lost sleep over me, and I more then likely own the rights to a couple of their grey hairs (sorry mom & dad).

I'm in disbelief that they held out their patience through those awful toddler/preteen/teenage/post-adolescent years.

And yet, every waking minute I do so much of that and more to God. (You probably saw it going in this direction, right?) If we tend to think any moral code was humanly devised we'd be delusional. We, in and of ourselves are just outright terrible. We are gossips, slanderers, manipulators and (insert your regret from the past 24 hours here). And yet God gives us a place to live. He allows fields to grow and flourish so we can have nourishment. He blesses us with these desires that we didn't even know we had. It's as simple as covering our shame of nakedness as in that day the first couple wore animal skins because of grace. And the tip of the iceberg still lies underwater. 

God Himself put on human attire. Grew up blameless in the sight of the law, gave it all away to the least of these, and paid our debt. The human race has greedily accepted many Heavenly gifts with soiled hands (sun rising/breathing/a repopulating population to name 3/1B) and in addition Jesus paid off an eternal debt - and we had to kill Him to make that happen. I can't even fathom that. Admittedly so I am short on patience. One of my biggest regrets is losing it on a guy in a McD's drive thru some years back - over his sour attitude. The fact that I'm still here to type about it after treating someone else Jesus died for that way is pretty extraordinarily unbelievable. I'm sure we would all have zap fried someone at some point or another, mercifully it's not up to us. And mercifully we live under the blue sky roof of an incomprehensibly merciful God.