Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, May 12, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
There is something wonderful about receiving an unexpected gift. This year I made a silly New Year’s resolution: to wear more fun socks in 2023. I had mentioned it to a few people in passing, nothing thinking anything of it. And then a few days later I received a package in the mail from my best friend. Six pairs of multicolored, striped wool socks. A couple weeks after that, a friend at church handed me a bag. You guessed it: fun socks. In both cases I can’t tell you how loved I felt. Far more than if I had gone out and bought a bunch of fun socks (which I still intend to do).
It's a silly example, but it tracks with today’s reading. If I operate under the idea that working to be a “good person” will result in God’s love, I miss out completely on the opportunity to be surprised. And God is full of beautiful, sublime, serendipitous surprises. It is precisely because I can’t earn grace that makes it so precious, and every time it shows up in my life, I get to feel loved all over again.
Where has God surprised me with gifts of grace in my life?
