For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

            I came across a story of a little boy named Bobby. As he was walking down the sidewalk, he stopped suddenly as he heard: “Meow! Meeow!  Meeeowww!”  “That sure sounds like Gracey,” he thought, “but where is she?”  Gracey, his pet kitten, had disappeared a day earlier and Bobby and been heartbroken ever since.  His eyes fell upon the old, empty, partially uncovered well close by.  He tiptoed over to it and bent to listen at the small, dark opening.  Sure enough! From the depths of the deep dark hole in the ground came the kitten’s imploring cries.

            Bobby went and got help from his dad who brought a small basket and attached it to the end of a long rope.  Dad dangled the basket in front of Gracey.  The kitten’s first instinct was to playfully swat it the basket in front of her.  Finally, after some coaxing and nudging from her young master, Gracey climbed into the basket and was pulled to safety.  The kitten was offered and received grace, and rested in it to be rescued out of her dark, cold, forlorn world.

            You and I are created by God.  We belong to Him but we fell away because of sin that came into the world. We were lost in the deep dark hole of sin, but God’s Son, Jesus found us.  He was willing to do whatever was necessary to rescue us and bring us back to Himself. What He had to do was to go to the cross and die for us so that we would have the opportunity to have eternal life. He is offering us grace and it’s up to us as to what we will do with the grace set before us.  Are we going to receive, believe and trust in it, or are we just going to play with it?  It’s not cheap grace.  It cost the blood of God’s one and only Son.  Are we willing to come to Him in repentance, admitting that we can’t get out of the pit on our own?  Every person must choose to “ride in the basket.”  A “non-choice” is a choice too.