My daughter, Serrie, just turned 8 this week, and we threw a small birthday party for her at our house. With all the aunts and uncles and grandparents around her, I must say, she received an embarrassing amount of gifts from them. If I were her, I would be very uncomfortable with those gifts because I know that I have to reciprocate on their birthdays. But my Serrie thinks no such thing. She simply receives all those gifts with joy and thanksgiving with no thought to pay them back! In her receiving gifts, unlike adults, she’s not worried about the implications and the stipulations of those gifts. She simply enjoys them.

That is how we are to receive the kingdom of God. “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Mark 10:15. 

If there is any thought as to pay God back for what He has done for us, so that we do not owe Him anything, then we have missed it. God’s grace is of such enormity that those who truly understand it won’t even think about paying Him back because that would be impossible. God sacrificed His eternal Son for us. What could we possibly do that will be worth the life of the very God of very God?

What is then expected of us? If not to pay God back for what He has done for us, then what? Love!

What God wants from us is love. That is what He has worked hard to earn. Nothing less than love would be fitting for the amazing grace He has shown us. I don’t want my child to try to pay back for everything I’ve done for her. But I do want her love – a joy overflowing from the delight that she finds in me!

God doesn’t seem delightful? Have you been reading His letters? Are you getting together with other believers and talking about Him? Are you contemplating regularly through prayer on what He did and does for you?

PH