July 2, 2023
Hebrews 12:12-15
As recipients of God’s amazing Grace and as bearers of that Grace, we can expect that God will not leave us as we are or have been. God loves you just as you are, but God’s love is such that God will not leave you just as you are.
When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, she was sent back to her village with worth and value she did not have before encountering Jesus.
Jesus called Zaccheaus down from a sycamore tree, and Zaccheaus was loved enough to host a meal for Jesus, but then Zaccheaus returned everything and more he had stolen from his neighbors.
God’s love makes welcoming a new pastor and their family a means of grace in the same way each of us is a means of God’s Grace to one another and our community.
So yes, God loves you, just as you are, whether you like it or not.
But (and it is a big but so you know it does not lie) as Ashley tells her husband Johnny in the film Junebug, “God loves you too much to let you stay that way.” God’s love changes us.
We can expect then to encounter God’s Grace every day of our lives and at the same time, we can expect that same Grace to change us, so that no one misses out on the Grace of God.
