"The Back Door"

 No, there wasn’t fanfare,

Or a ticker-tape parade,

No, there were no fireworks,

Or even music played.

There were no dignitaries,

Lined up to wish him well,

Nor engraved invitations,

Or souvenirs to sell.

No headline announcements,

No sirens in the streets,

No banquets or watch parties,

No expensive meet-and-greets.

Just a tiny group of hired hands,

Tired and dirty from their day,

Tending livestock in the night,

Scared when angels came to say,

That the promise of the great I Am,

Has come through a back door,

Where very little room was found,

And few believed it any more.

Such a strange salvation,

Through a virgin’s womb,

From start right to the finish,

With a borrowed, empty tomb.

The Almighty in His wisdom,

Knew what the plan should be,

And it’s for everybody,

The unlikely, don’t you see.

The forgotten and the sinful,

The wounded and the worst,

The ones who were passed over,

Living under this world’s curse.

And so the grace that reaches,

To the barrel’s bottom dreg,

Is given to the least of these,

No need to plead and beg.

But there within the reach of one,

Who wandered from the rest,

The Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine,

Brings to the lost His best.

Grace, you see, is undeserved,

And comes in hidden ways,

Disguised with such humility,

The fallen soul to raise.

It’s what it took to save us,

It saves us yet today,

The Good News through the back door,

His love to us display.

“He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things- and the things that are not- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.” (1 Corinthians 1:28-29, NIV)

The Holy One high and lifted up, totally “other” in His righteousness and love, has come to the lowest and manifested Himself that way. The Jews were scandalized that their Messiah should eat with sinners and wash His disciples’ feet. The Gentiles thought it nonsensical and demanded a more elaborate solution. But both and all others who dispute God’s wisdom are wrong. God chose this way, the way of humility, to reveal Himself and bring salvation. No one is beyond His reach. No one can claim that they earned it, either. For one and all, from top to bottom, it is the grace of God that saves.

Lord, let us see the beauty of Your grace, in Jesus’ name.

Art by Tyler Crowe, used by permission. Thanks, Tyler, and God bless you.