Unexpected Gifts
Last week, I pulled into the drive and saw a friend mowing my front pasture. He had already mowed almost half of it. The wind blew the dirt and dry grass in a cloud around him, and I knew it was a dirty job. I knew he was coming before I got home. His wife, my dear friend, Jill, had texted me earlier to ask if Gabe could ‘test drive’ the commercial mower he had repaired. I knew this was an act of kindness and a way to offer me help I might otherwise refuse.
On this same day, my son called to let me know the paving company where he works would dump some extra gravel in my drive to fill holes worn by tires and time. This too was a kindness offered by this family-owned business.
Hard and Humbling
I offered to pay but was refused. I wanted to insist, but I didn’t. I know that to insist would reduce their gift to an exchange of goods and services for money. That would almost be an insult to men offering more in the gift of their time than my money could compensate. This is a sacrifice they willingly offered – a gift.
It is said that it is easier to give than to receive, but it may depend on how it is received. Some gifts are accepted with a sense of entitlement. Other recipients insist on paying and thereby earning what is offered. It is humbling and hard to be the recipient of a gift you cannot repay. I have wondered if how we receive those unmerited acts of kindness –those gifts of grace – reflect how we accept God’s gift of grace.
Truth in an Old Hymn
At church not long ago, we sang the old hymn, Come Thou Fount. I have always loved this song. The lines of the third verse usually begin with these words, “O to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be.” These words replayed in my mind as I looked at the newly mowed acreage in front of my house and was reminded once more that I am truly a debtor to grace. “…while we (I) were still sinners, Christ died for us (me).” So often I want to believe my good deeds somehow earn favor with God, but the truth is, God loved me before I ever did anything. It is grace – an unearned favor I cannot repay – that has and continues to redeem me.
The next line to that old hymn echoes through my thoughts, ‘Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.” God’s goodness lived out in gifts of grace binds my heart in gratitude. But even without these tokens of grace, the sweet presence of his peace that blankets me in the still of the morning after a restless night, and the comfort of solitude as I watch the sunset at the end of a long day, is evidence enough of God’s goodness. And I pray they bind my heart and continually remind me that I am a debtor to grace.
If you know this old hymn, I pray these words echo in your thoughts today as a reminder that we are all eternal debtors to God’s goodness and grace.