John 14:6 NIV: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
When I returned from making a phone call, she was sitting on the kitchen table getting freaky with it. Bella squeezed out an entire tube of expensive orange paint onto her paper and was splashing around.
“Bella, that’s naughty! No No!” I said. “This is Mommy’s and you wasted it.” She looked up with those large brown eyes. “I’m sorry Momma.”
“Okay, but don’t ever do this again.”
“Good mornin Momma…” No matter what time of day, if Bella thinks she’s in trouble she’ll say “good morning.” It is her way of making sure we are okay.
I smiled. “Good morning.”
Then it happened. She slipped down from the table and ran off, leaving me wondering how does she do that? How did she accept grace so easily? I think Jesus liked that about children. How they believed in His forgiveness and humbly accepted His gift of grace without any qualms.
“He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:2-3 NIV.
We could all learn from Bella how to accept grace. Why is it so difficult for adults?
Last weekend, we drove up to the farm. When we arrived, we found a bird flying around our family room. From experience, I knew if we turned out the lights, a bird will fly towards the light. We made the house completely dark and flipped on the porch lights to test my theory, but the bird wouldn’t budge. Eventually, we gave up, and decided we’d try again in the morning.
The next morning, the bird left its signature on my perfect white walls. You know the white that isn’t too yellow or too blue just perfect? Now my eyes can’t see perfect, I only see poo.
In the kitchen, Jay was making coffee. I walked in and grabbed a cup. “We have to get rid of this bird this morning, or I’m going to have to repaint the walls,” I said. “Don’t turn on the lights. It’ll confuse him.”
When the sun peeked over the trees, we opened the front doors. The bird fluttered around a bit, before flying straight through those doors into freedom. The bird accepted grace. The night before, the bird didn’t hear the call of its peeps, and it recognized the porch lights were artificial. Ya can’t fool a bird.
It is the same process when we accept the saving grace. We must feel the call of the Holy Spirit, acknowledge the true Light, and accept the freedom it offers. It seems so easy, then why do we struggle? A friend explained it this way. “It’s not that believing Jesus is difficult” she said. “as much as the path to salvation is too narrow for most.” I think she meant, we like to carry things: our plans, our mistakes, our sins we’re not willing to give up, our hurts, our good deeds, our culture, our own belief system, and most of all our control, all of which, are burdensome. I find with my arms and heart full of mine, there’s no room for His. You must release that burden in order to fly through the narrow passage into the light of grace.
Matthew 7:13-14: 13 NIV: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
There is only one way to the grace that provides life eternal and true peace, and that is through Jesus.
