on grace

The story of Mephibosheth recently came up in a morning talk. King David was given supernatural grace to love his rival, the speaker pointed out, and this is something we should pray for too.

Now when I heard this I flew into a self-righteous rage (more on this later) over the seemingly man-centric conclusion, because I reckoned there’s a better way to look at it: we are Mephibosheth, standing before the King. By all rights we are dead men, not (it seems to us) by any virtue of what we’ve done, but simply because of who we are, the blood that runs in our veins. But someone before us has earned the King’s favour on or behalf, and because the King honours promises, he not only calls us friend, but brings us into his family, gives us a home, a future, and his own riches (2 Sam 9:6-7). Continue reading “on grace”

my kids

These are my kids:

One of them loves taking pictures. She’s really quiet, but if she likes you she’ll show you photos of cats and birds.

One of them dreams of joining the UN.

One of them reminds me of myself at her age, determined but a bit unsure.

One of them is a bit of a diva, she’s really smart, if only she could just stay awake.

Another one tries her best to stay awake but often loses that battle.

A few of them always look straight at me reassuringly as I talk.

One of them puts on a tough, sophisticated front, but now and again you see she’s just a scared little girl. She’s really smart but she gets tired a lot.

One of them always says what she thinks. She wants to be a vet when she grows up, but she has doubts.

One of them loves hockey.

One of them loves fencing.

One of them gets sick a lot and it makes her unhappy.

Some of them love swimming, and they always smile and ask me for help.

One of them loves dancing, and she writes really well.

One of them loves everything Japanese.

One of them is sharp as a tack but doesn’t let it go to her head.

One of them always steps up to try even if things sometimes go over her head.

Some of them really love Jesus. They try their best even if things get awkward.

These are just some of them, there are many more. They’re the kids that Dad gave me.

I’ll be very sad when they graduate.

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