Sunday Meditation

FREE WILL

"Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having." C.S. Lewis, Men's Devotional Bible

GOD IS GRACIOUS

God is gracious in ways we may never anticipate, meeting one profoundly in his desire to give, another in her profound suffering, coming to all in the sending of the Son and the manifestations of his life, death, and resurrection. It would have been enough to sustain our praise in the Incarnation of the Christ child or in the ministry and miracles of Jesus—”The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (Luke 7:22). But God wanted to bring even more: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). And that Son was sent to the Cross, where he was crucified, died, and buried. This too would have been enough to elicit our gratitude—an innocent sufferer, God hanging with us on the gallows. But then Christ rose from the grave, defeating death, and inviting us to follow and do the same.  Jill Carattini, Slice of Infinity