Matthew 25:40 "The king will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."'

Grace what have you done. In me You, God, saw no beauty, no good, no life, no strength, nothing desirable, nothing righteous. Yet despite the ugliness, lifelessness, darkness, deadness, weakness, and sinfulness, You took me as your own, loved me, accepted me and changed me.

The degree to which I understand this beautiful grace, this undeserved steadfast love, is the degree to which I will love my Savior in return. To understand this grace is to know that despite everything that I am not and can not, dispite my wretchedness, I am accepted. And then the least of these. If I understand this grace to me, instead of looking down, demeaning the broken and needy ones around me, I will look on with compassion because who I see is myself, broken and in need, except for Christ.

But how conditional is my love. It is all to easy to love a person because of behavior, appearance, background, status, or what that individual has to give me in return. This is far from the undeserved grace and love that have been lavished on me. Do I love so conditionally because somewhere in the raw part of my heart, I think of God as loving me conditionally, based on merit? Do I love based on standards and merit because I beleive that God's love to me is based off of that? In setting a self imposed standard on how and when I allow myself to beleive that God loves me, I have imposed this standard on others. Withholding grace, judging, conditionally loving.

Only understanding in my heart the unmerited grace and love I have received will compel in me sincere love for the least of these. They are broken as I am, they are in need of grace the same as I am. That is why, in the eyes of Jesus, loving the least of these is the same as loving Him. The water for the thirsty, food for the hungry, welcome for the stranger, clothes for the naked, visitation to the sick and imprisoned, these count for loving him, but not out of duty or obligation. It is a heartfelt response to his unconditional love.

We love as we beleive to be loved.
Open my eyes to your love.

"Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer. You shall cry, and he will say 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noon day." (Isaiah 58:9-10).