The mercy and forgiveness of God continues to baffle me. I continue to be blessed beyond measure and it is a mystery to me how God forgave my sins and continues to do so. So, I was mulling this over today.
I just returned from spending several days in Atlanta visiting two of my sons and their families. My youngest is recovering from Prostate cancer surgery and if you didn’t know it, you would be hard to pressed to find any clue he just had major surgery. He is doing great with no sign that the cancer has spread. He is driving his car, and even playing golf, and is already back at work and building his new business which is growing like a weed. My older son and his family are doing terrific as well. His mega multimillion dollar businesses are thriving and seem to expand exponentially every year.
It is difficult to believe but my twin granddaughters are turning 17 this week. Yikes seems as though they just arrived on the scene. They are both beautiful and heavily involved in cheer and though just juniors are already being considered for some of the country’s most prestigious universities for their cheerleading teams. Our two grandsons are handsome lads and all boy. The oldest, who is 13 is undergoing a voice change and it is hilariously funny to hear his deep voice overtake his squeaky adolescent voice. They are playing lacrosse and we went to their final games of the season this past weekend. They excelled and their respective teams handily won their games.
All our grandchildren are incredibly smart as are their parents. Two have never made below an “A” in their entire lives. None of them have ever made below a “B”. Their parents love them beyond measure, and they love them equally. The family unit is a team, meaning they do most everything together.
As I thought about my difficult childhood and lonely, dysfunctional, life I am astounded at the difference. God pulled me out of the gutter and I and others have often wondered why he bothered. It seems I should have been singled out for severe punishment and then tossed on the garbage heap.
In His wisdom God knew that I would at last follow Him as best I knew how, but not only that, but I would raise up a family of believers who would fellowship with Him and love Him. I wish every person reading this could hear one of my grandkids or their parents offering the blessing for our food when we eat and thank God for all that He is and has done for them.
As with everything about God He is multi-faceted and I know my many years in prison ministry and other Christian pursuits made Him proud, but that is not why God blessed me. There is nothing I did or could have ever done that caused His blessings, mercy, and forgiveness. He did it because He is God, and he loves me and my family and you and your family. The Bible calls it grace. If only this world would understand that life can be so much better if we would just let Him in to take over our lives and allow His love to permeate our lives to their very core. We cannot do anything in life to attain the peace we all desire; it cannot be bought, no good deed will pay our sin debt, no material thing can be given to the downtrodden in exchange for it. Grace is free and it is derived solely from the Lord and best of all He wants to give it to us.
James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.