My family enjoyed our first vacation in three years during the first week of September 2017.  The weather was great, the ocean was clear and we enjoyed one another.  That sounds like a normal vacation, right?

What made this trip different was the kindness we were shown by our dear friends.  They provided lodging for us in a very nice place at no cost to us.  We are extremely thankful for that. Our vacation would not have happened without their kind gift.   Beyond their gracious gift of a place to stay, they continued to give to us! They took us to nice restaurants for dinner, provided food in the refrigerator for us to eat.  We were blown away!  So, why post this to Effects of Grace’s website?  Because it looks like Jesus!

Who else has given to His “friends” a gift they could not possibly repay (John 15:15)?  Jesus!  Who else keeps giving precious gifts to the “children of God,” even after giving the gift of greatest cost (John 1:16; Rom. 8:32)?  Jesus!  It is our Lord Who has given His children the greatest gift we could never repay, yet He continues to abound His grace even more to us.

You and I are not called to blaze our own trails.  We are to imitate Jesus (Eph. 5:1-2).  This is one reason that local church membership and involvement is so important.  If we are to imitate Jesus, that often means we are to imitate the fruit of the Spirit we see in other believers (1 Cor. 4:6; 11:1; 1 Pet. 1:16).

I praise God for the kindness my family was shown recently by our friends.  But I offer more praise to God for His Spirit’s work in His children, my friends.  Not all of us are gifted the same way; however, all of us are called to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matt. 5:48).  I want to strive to be like Jesus.  Thank God for an up close and personal example of how God’s generosity looks.  That should make it easier for me to imitate.