All Because of Grace

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him. Matthew 9:9 NLT

It never ceases to amaze me how Jesus gravitated towards the shunned, the misfits, the has-beens and never-beens, the ‘unlovable’ of society. He pursued the weary, the grieving, the worn out, the wounded, the forsaken.

Now, Matthew was a tax collector. We’re not talking about some guy who works 9 to 5 for the IRS. In Jesus’ time, tax collectors were hated and despised by the Jews. They were considered to be traitors because they extorted people to benefit themselves as well as Rome’s treasury. Yet Jesus saw beyond the superficial, beyond the what to the who. He saw a man in need of transformation, a life that was ripe to receive His mercy and grace.

You and I weren’t much different before God sought us out. By His grace, He saw you, He saw me, sitting in our sin, our corruption, our failures, and called us to Him. To be fully known by God yet fully loved – now that is something worth sharing!

Prayer: You saw me as I was yet you still called me to rise up and follow you. Such mercy, such grace! As I go about this day, Lord, help me to see others through your eyes. In your name, I pray, Amen.

Thought: Grace is the greatest eraser, the greatest equalizer, the greatest gift to a needy world.