Charitable Chooks - Grace and Favor

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling.”
Matthew 23:37

There once was two chickens named Grace and Favor. These two chickens generously shared their eggs with the farmer and regularly extended an invitation to any creature to join them for a meal. They even invited the old buzzard, who regularly made fun of them because they couldn’t fly. Because of their generosity the farm flourished and everyone lived together in peace. Ok, well I made that little story up as I was preparing to write this week’s devotion. You see there are two words one Greek - charis and the other Hebrew - hen that are often times translated as both grace and favor, which in turn reminded me of this week’s passage from Matthew.

Jesus is standing looking over the city filled with people He longed to gift with grace and favor but the people were not willing. They were to busy trying to save themselves, trying to live abundantly on their own while being oppressed by the Romans. God had been silent or seemingly so for a long while and so only a few paused long enough to hear what Jesus had to say, to accept the gift He was offering. If you were to keep reading into verses 38 & 39 you would see that in that place and at that particular time Jesus withdraws the gift, but not permanently.

In our modern world, we often get caught up in doing, trying to be who we think God wants us to be - only thing is we based that on what the world is telling us. For some the world maybe telling them they are unworthy and will never be loved by anyone let alone God. For others it might be the need for success and worldly power that has them to busy to accept the gift. But here’s the thing about God’s grace and favor - there is nothing any of us can do to earn it and at the same time no matter what we do - good or bad Jesus still loves you and stands holding this amazing gift with outstretched arms for anyone willing to take it. 

We hear lots of talk about why we struggle so receiving and giving grace - often as a reflection of a lack of faith. I think that it is an inaccurate self image that gets in the way. When we realize that we are children of God, heirs to the divine throne - we recognize the power, privilege and responsibility that come with our lives being wrapped up in Christ’s.

That said we can forgive much because we have been forgiven much, we can behave gracefully because we have been soaked in grace - we can be Christ to the world around us because Christ lives in us.

What about you, are you willing to let Jesus gather you under His wings so He can give you grace and show you favor?

A Prayer
Father - thank you for loving us and wanting the best for us even when we are unwilling to stop long enough to accept the amazing gift you have for us. Help us every day to accept anew Your favor and grace and then help us to show that favor and grace to those around us. In the name Jesus, we pray - Amen.