A PITCHER OF GRACE
This past week I read this story about grace that I would like to share with you all this morning. This story is about a man named Henry Moorehouse
One evening as Henry was walking along the street he saw a little girl coming out of a basement store carrying a pitcher of milk. She was taking it home. But when she was a few yards away from Henry she suddenly slipped and fell. Her hands let go of the pitcher of milk and it fell on the sidewalk and broke and the milk ran into the streets. The little girl began to cry instantaneously.
Henry ran up to the little girl helped her to her feet and check to see if she was okay. As Henry attended to the little girl he began to say to her, "It's okay don't cry." But there was no stopping these tears. Nothing Henry did would stop her from crying finally she utter the words every child has said when they make a mistake, "My mommy's gonna whip me, my mommy's gonna whip me," she said repeatedly.
Henry tried to calm her down but it was no use. Finally he said to her, "Your mommy won't whip you. Let me see the pitcher is not too badly broken maybe I can put the pitcher back together." At that the little girls stopped crying and Henry began working to put the pitcher back together. The little girl had hope. She had come from a family that had repaired and fixed pitchers before; maybe this stranger could do the same.
Henry work very hard at putting the pieces back together but being a little too rough, he knocked the pitcher over again and back into many pieces. The little girl began to cry again. Henry said again, "Don't cry, little girl. I promise your mommy won't whip you." And back to work he went again putting the pieces together.
This time they got it all back together except for the handle. Henry gave the handle to the little girl for her to put on but again disaster. Down the pitcher went into even more pieces.
Finally Henry picked up the little girl in his arms and headed the local store and bought her a brand new pitcher. With the pitcher in one arm and the little girl in the other he headed back to the store where the little girl bought the milk and purchased another pitcher of milk. Henry asked where the little girl lives and the headed to her house.
They reached her house Henry set her down on the step, put the pitcher of milk in the little girls hands opened the door for her. As she stepped inside Henry asked her one final question: "Do you think your mother will whip you?" With a big bright smile she said, "Oh no, this is a lot better pitcher than the one we had before."
What a perfect picture of God's grace.
Grace is God giving us what we don't deserve.
(From a sermon by Kyle Sullivan, All About Grace, 6/10/2010)