Undeserved Blessings

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

A colleague of mine told me about a friend of his son who often spent the night with their family. They would pick him up and take him to dinner with them, take him shopping at the mall, and effectively enabled him to live as if he was one of the family.  

That young man eventually gave his life to Christ, and later accepted his call to the ministry as a young adult. During a Youth Day message at their church, the young man began reminiscing about the joys of being able to come and spend the night at his friend’s house. He talked about how much he remembered and appreciated all of the dinners he had with the family, how if they went to the mall, they would buy him things the same way they bought things for their kids. “In fact,” he recalled, “Pastor, got me my first leather jacket.”  

This pastor friend of mine was shocked at that revelation because he thought nothing of it at the time and had actually forgotten about it. As the young man went on to preach a stirring message before the church, the pastor was left pondering the young man’s introductory remarks.  

Then, all of a sudden, the light came on. Here was a kid—now a young man—who remembered the kindnesses of a man who treated him like family, when he wasn’t actually family. This young man never forgot how he enjoyed the privilege of the generosity of his friend’s dad, simply because he had relationship with that man’s son.  

That’s the way things are for you and me when we give our lives to God. We truly don’t deserve the rights and privileges that God affords us; but He gives it to us anyway. You and I get to enjoy the rights and privileges of the Father, whenever we choose to develop a relationship with His Son. What an amazing gift!