FREE

Wild flowers are beautiful!

Years ago, my friend Mandy and I wanted to share their beauty with others. We tromped through the fields near my country home and selected the most vibrant and sturdy looking flowers. Back in the front yard, we carefully arranged them into bouquets and tied them together with string. After gently placing them in a pail of cool water, we crafted a large sign: "FREE FLOWERS."

Cheerfully, we waited by the side of the road, excited to share our wealth with passersby. Yet car after car raced by and barely took notice of our sign. A few slowed but continued on once they saw the purpose of our endeavour. Only one car slowed and actually accepted a bouquet.

To my young mind, this was quite puzzling. Here were beautifully arranged, fresh flowers and they were FREE, yet people did not want them.
What I did not comprehend in my youth was that the flowers weren't actually free. They cost people the time to stop. They cost people the possibility of having to chat with two enthusiastic young girls. And they cost people the "burden" of having a bunch of "weed" wild flowers in their car.

God's gift of grace is absolutely free. We can not earn it or buy it or ever deserve yet.
Yet many people often turn and run from God's loving grace.
They run because they see that this grace, while free, is costly.
It is not a cheap grace; it cost Jesus dearly!
And it "costs" Christians too. It costs them sacrifice, obedience, renouncing of the flesh, and many other things.

But unlike some fading wildflowers, this grace is not something that we want to pass up.
And it is not something that we want others to pass up either.
This precious, blood-bought, redeeming grace....