My children understand well that fairness is key to life in a family. As I make their packed lunches each day, I make sure I put exactly the same amount of grapes, sandwiches or carrot sticks in each -because they often sit together and compare…

Children, and not just children, but adults too, often use the phrase ‘It’s not fair!’ Not everything is fair. And I praise God for it! Take ‘Grace’ for example. Grace is most definitely UNFAIR. It is not ‘fair’ of God to choose to give me what I don’t deserve at the expense of His beloved son. That is not in any way FAIR. It is not justice, it is mercy.

Salvation. There’s another thing that is downright unfair. It is not given to me because I earn it or because I work for it. It is a gift.

Forgiveness. There’s another one. Punishment should be given and yet God pours out His loving forgiveness instead. I am learning that God doesn’t love me because of who I am but because of who HE is. American Evangelists will spout at you through glistening day-glo teeth that you are ‘worth everything to God and that’s why He wants you’… This is true, but its not WHY we are saved. We are saved because God is unfair. Because He chooses to look beyond what we are to WHOM we need.

A story by Ernest Hemingway tells of a Spanish father who wants to be reconciled with his son who has run away to Madrid. Now desperate to regain what he has lost, the father takes out an ad in the El Liberal Newspaper:
“PACO,
MEET ME AT HOTEL MONTANA NOON TUESDAY. ALL IS FORGIVEN.
PAPA.”

Paco is a common name in Spain. When the father goes to the square he finds 800 young men named Paco waiting for their Father.

We are all desperate to be treated unfairly…

In the movie ‘The Last Emperor’, the young child anointed as the last head of China lives a magical life of luxury with a thousand servants.
“What happens when you do wrong?” his brother asks.
His reply is astonishingly BIblical:
“When I do wrong, someone else is punished,’ he replies. To demonstrate his power he deliberately breaks a jar. One of his servants is then beaten.

The big difference in what you and I believe my friend, is that God has reversed this pattern. When we, the servants do wrong, the King takes the blame.

I praise my Father today that He is unfair. Don’t you?