Many years ago there was a lady known for her delicious homemade pies. Her name was Flossie. As everyone knows, older experienced cooks make the best pies. Miss Flossie and her husband owned a fruit farm so she always had good, fresh ingredients for her pies.
She had given a pie to a family in her church. One Wednesday night as the family left to go to that night's church service the mother of that family mentioned taking Miss Flossie's glass pie plate back to her. One of the sons in this family over heard his mother. He wanted to take the pie plate back. He wanted to let Miss Flossie know how much he enjoyed her pie.
This boy couldn't have been older than six at the time and his mother didn't think it was a good idea for him to be responsible for this glass pie plate. Using all his persuasive skills though, he was able to convince his mother that he would be careful and that nothing would happen to the pie plate. The mother finally gave in.
The boy carried that glass pie plate in both hands while walking slowly towards the church building. As he started up the few concrete steps to the door, he tripped. You know the result. That glass pie plate of Miss Flossie's broke into hundreds of pieces. That boy felt as low as a six year old boy could feel. That is until his mother saw him. Then he really felt bad.
His mother was obviously upset, disappointed and mad at the boy. As he listened to her he didn't think he could feel any worse; until she told him he would have to tell Miss Flossie what happened. He stood there waiting for the old lady to show up, hoping she would stay at home this night. His heart sank when he saw her pull into the parking lot. The moment of truth was at hand.
As Miss Flossie approached him he felt even worse than he ever thought possible. Miss Flossie greeted his mother and gave the boy a hug. He began to tell the woman what had happened, that it had been an accident, that's he'd tried to be careful, that he was sorry. He had broken her pie plate. He now waited knowing that as bad as things had been for the past few minutes they were probably going to get worse. He'd have to pay for the plate. He might have to work at the fruit farm. His parents would punish him. Miss Flossie would punish him.
Then she hugged him. Miss Flossie hugged the boy, told him it was alright, don't worry about that old pie plate. The boy was stunned as she went on to ask what his favorite flavor of pie was because she was going to bake a special one just for him. Thinking this was too good to be true the boy yelled out, "Blueberry" as quickly as he could before she changed her mind. The lady hugged him again as she told him he'd have his own blueberry pie the following Sunday and he did.
Did that boy deserve that pie? Had he done anything to earn that pie? Of course not. If anything he deserved to be punished for his actions, not rewarded. Yet he was rewarded. He was given a gift that he didn't deserve, that he didn't earn and it was given solely out of love. What the boy deserved was justice. What he got was mercy.
So it is with us. We don't deserve the salvation given to us by God. We certainly can't and didn't earn it. It has been given to us because of His love for us, no other reason. Do we appreciate it? Do we cherish it like the boy cherished his blueberry pie? Do we look forward to that final reward? If we were given what we've earned, what we deserve because of our sins, we would all be in trouble.
I've eaten many blueberry pies since that night in the mid-70's. None tasted as sweet and delicious as that blueberry pie Miss Flossie made for me. I can't even eat, see or hear about blueberry pie without thinking of Miss Flossie, love and mercy. Cherish and appreciate His love, His mercy, His salvation. If we do it will show in our lives to others and help make us stronger, more Christ centered Christians and it will certainly be sweeter than a thousand blueberry pies.
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