Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, “for by grace we have been saved through faith.” Grace is getting something we did not deserve and mercy is not getting what we do deserve. Looking out over the women incarcerated on a 90 degree day, sitting outside, holding their babies as I was speaking at the women’s prison in Tete, Mozambique, on the sixth day of our mission, about grace and mercy, the Lord graciously gave me an illustration to share with all who were listening. We as parents love our newborn babies. As mothers and fathers we know our infants do not know how to speak English or in the case of the mother’s of Mozambique, Chewa and Portugese. We do not speak to them in complete sentences. Parents often will say simple words. Or we may just make goo-goo sounds to communicate. It’s not that we all of a sudden we forget how to speak our language, its that we bring it down to their level as an act of grace. In similar fashion humanity did not understand the kingdom of heaven so the Father God sent God the Son to earth as an act of grace to bring God’s kingdom and salvation to our level, helping us begin to understand it. “The wages of sin is death,” Romans 6:23 says indicating what we do deserve is spiritual death and separation from God forever, but God is merciful in not letting that be everyone’s final fate. However, the verse continues to say, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus.” God graciously came down and gave us eternal life through Jesus Christ. But just like you do not expect a child to continue to say goo-goo-ga-ga forever, neither should we be babies in Christ forever. Let us now be gracious and merciful to those around us, displaying the love of our Lord to the world as we mature in Christ. And by the way the babies were beautiful!!
