Judgment or Grace?

Did they know grace, those who had worked hard all day? We spend a lot of time in our society concerned with fairness. That is good. We are to be concerned with fair wages for a fair day’s work.

We are to care that people be treated fairly, regardless of their skin color or language. But God is not always fair. For that we need to say “Hallelujah!”

If it never occurs to us to act as generously as God does, then we do not live as children of a gracious God. We are trapped in the bleak world of equations that must always balance and relationships that are always measured in whether the payoff is worth the effort involved.

We miss the joy that could be ours because we know a gracious and loving God. It is as if we have to choose between looking through a window of the parable and seeing the generosity of God, or being forced to look in a mirror at our own envy and miserliness.

Perhaps the parable about God is a parable about us.

God, help us mirror your graciousness in all we do. Amen.