Only By Grace

I was sitting out on the back patio of our home over the weekend.  In a quiet time, I started looking around at all that I saw, thinking about how it all got there and why I was so privileged to enjoy it.

I must confess that I don’t have answers to those questions.  Ultimately, I believe that God created all that we see and know, and all that we don’t see and don’t know.  However, just how the park woods which borders our back yard came to be, and how the tallgrass around the fish pond came to be what it is, with its seed pods high in the air this time of the year…I haven’t a clue.  And even the goldfish, the roses, the birds…all of that and more are beyond me in terms of how it all got there for me to enjoy.

The question of why I was privileged to enjoy it is even more puzzling for me.  I don’t deserve any of it.  I don’t deserve to have a back patio that borders Pawnee Prairie Park.  I don’t deserve to have a fish pond or tallgrass surrounding it.  I don’t deserve to have rose bushes that bloom even now.  I don’t deserve to have eyes, ears, or a brain to perceive, understand, and enjoy these thing.  I don’t even deserve to be here.  Yet here I am…in the middle of all of this beauty and enjoyment.

One might say, “You’ve worked hard all your life.  You deserve to have some nicer things.”  No, I don’t.  Yes, I’ve worked hard.  But no, there is no guarantee that any of that will result in enjoying nice things.  I’m not even guaranteed to be alive tonight, let alone next week.  Why should I think I’m entitled somehow to have running water, air conditioning, transportation, and a bed?

No one owes me anything.  God owes me nothing.  The government owes me not one thing.  If anyone is indebted, it is I.  And I’d better make sure I understand that.  If anyone is indebted, it is I.  I am indebted first to God.  I am indebted to those who have sacrificed to make this nation what it is.  I am indebted to the sheepdogs who keep the wolves away from us sheep.  I am indebted to my family, my parents, my ancestors, my friends.

The next time you get the feeling that the world owes you something, or that God is repaying you for some great thing you’ve done for Him, remember the story of the rich fool in Luke chapter 12.  After surveying all that he had accumulated, he decided to take it easy and live off of his largess.  But that very day, God comes to him and says, “‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

It is fine to enjoy the things God may grant to us from time to time.  It is good to benefit from the grace given to us.  But we must remember…it is only by grace that we can enjoy these things…and that they are in no way guaranteed to us.