A Sunday school teacher was asking her class some questions. "If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the poor — would I get into heaven?"

"NO!" the children all answered.

"If I volunteered at the church every day and served in the community — would I get into heaven?"

"NO!"

"If I read my Bible and prayed three times a day — would I get into heaven?"

"NO!"

"Well then," she said, "how do I get into heaven?"

From the back of the room a small boy called out: "To get into heaven, silly — first you've got to be dead!"

The children were right, of course — just not in the way the teacher intended. It is not our giving, our serving, or our praying that earns us a place with God. The Apostle Paul is emphatic about this: grace is free. You cannot earn what has already been given.

But here is what I love about that passage. Paul doesn't stop there. He goes on to say that the whole law — every rule, every obligation — is summed up in a single command: love your neighbor as yourself. (Galatians 5:14)

Not because we have to. Not to earn points or ease our guilt. But because we are free to. Because we have been loved extravagantly and that love has to go somewhere.

Have you ever been in a moment where you know — you just know — you've made a difference for someone? That feeling is not accidental. It is what we were made for.

Prayer: Gracious God, thank you that your grace is free — that there is nothing we can do to earn it and nothing we can do to lose it. Free us now to love not out of obligation but out of gratitude. May that love find someone who needs it today. Amen.

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